Union flags issues with health-care aide hiring practices

While Treena Slate, the CEO of Prairie Mountain Health (PMH), works to reduce the number of agency nurses as ordered by the provincial government days ago, Kyle Ross, the president of the Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU), says “agency spending is also a big issue with health-care aides.”

“We’d like the government to address agency use period, not just focus on nurses,” Ross told the Sun.

“When we had health-care aide vacancy rates as high as 80 per cent in some places in 2024, we understood that agency needed to be used, but it’s becoming the norm. It’s basically privatizing our health-care system, and we’d really like to see a strong public system,” he said.

From 2021 to 2024, PMH spent a total of $44.09 million on agencies to hire health-care aides. During the 2023–24 fiscal year, the amount was $20.9 million, and the year before it was $18.39 million.

Doctors pitch winter challenge to improve Manitobans’ health

Manitoba’s doctors have launched a winter challenge to help Manitobans improve their overall health and are offering a contest as an incentive to get more people moving, says Dr. Randy Guzman, president of Doctors Manitoba.

People need to set realistic goals to improve their health, Guzman added. It’s not reasonable for someone to go from the couch to a five-kilometre trek. For best results, people should move from the couch to a walk around the block and keep expanding from there.

“Start small,” said Guzman, a vascular surgeon at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Hospital, “because it’s the small steps that you start out with, that will ultimately result in overall better health.”

“And exercise is super important,” he added. “As a vascular surgeon, I unfortunately see the end result of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, smoking, amputation, strokes and aneurysms.

Tower taking shape

PMH ordered to cut spending on agency nurses

The Manitoba government has ordered Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) to reduce its spending on agency nurses by 15 per cent by March 2026, said Uzoma Asagwara, the province’s minister of health, seniors and long-term care.

The directive is “part of a system-wide effort to refocus funding on nurses in the public system,” Asagwara said in a news release on Wednesday.

“Prairie Mountain Health has consistently been dealt a bad hand,” Asagwara stated, blaming the former Progressive Conservative government for giving Prairie Mountain “little to no support” by cutting services, closing emergency rooms and firing nurses.

The 15 per cent reduction in spending that PMH has to meet within the next 13 months, is based on figures from the “2024/2025 utilization,” according to information supplied to the Sun by a Manitoba Health spokesperson.

Personal struggle drives Brandonite to help others

When Brandon’s Sarah McLeod was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, she says she was able to get the help she needed and it is the reason why she is “giving back and helping people,” as a facilitator with The Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba’s (MDAM) Prairie Mountain region.

McLeod helps facilitate two groups with the non-profit, a wellness group on Monday nights and a ladies group called Soul Sisters on Tuesday mornings. She said it helps her, when she helps others.

“When you’re not well, it’s hard to talk to somebody who doesn’t get it,” McLeod said. “They don’t understand what it’s like not to be able to get out of bed in the morning and do the basic things like shower and eat properly.”

“So, when you find somebody who’s been there, it’s like, hey, you know what this feels like. That’s the value of peer support,” she said.

PMH to host medical students under student-led initiative

This weekend, Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) will host medical students from the University of Manitoba in Brandon and Killarney to promote the benefits of practising medicine in rural communities, and the way of life that goes along with it.

The initiative is called Rural Interest Group (RIG) and is in partnership with Health Careers Manitoba and the Max Rady College of Medicine, Faculty of Sciences in Winnipeg.

On Friday and Saturday, the Brandon and Killarney health-care centres will host 75 first- and second-year medical students, up from 55 students last year, and 34 in 2023.

Brandon Regional Health Centre expects to welcome 45 students, with 30 participants slated to visit the Tri-Lake Health Centre in Killarney, according to a PMH news release.

Caring for aging parents with dementia

Brandon’s Doug Adams and his twin brother just turned 60, and say they share more than the same birthday. It’s the care and concern they have for their 90-year-old mother Ada who has dementia.

“We — my brother Dave and I, just noticed that mom was beginning to repeat things and there was a bit of forgetting, that kind of thing, and it just became more prevalent,” said Adams.

“So, we wanted to have her assessed to have a baseline that would help us determine whether things were progressing, or if they were stable,” he said.

More than 20,300 Manitobans currently live with dementia. And that number is expected to reach 39,100 by 2050, according to the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba website.

Applications for plastic health cards now open

WINNIPEG — Manitobans can now apply for a plastic health card online.

Health, Seniors and Long-term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara and Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz made the announcement in a news release.

“Our government has been working hard to move our health-card system into the modern era, and we’re thankful to Manitobans’ patience as we take time to get this process right,” Asagwara said.

“Over the next few months, we expect the popularity of this initiative to mean it may take some time for every Manitoban to receive an updated card, but we’re focused on finally getting this done.”

Paramedic shortage creating crisis: PC MLA

Several Westman communities are facing a health-care crisis because of a shortage of paramedics, says Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Roblin.

In an interview with the Sun, Cook said she had heard similar accounts from first responders themselves.

“When I hear ‘crisis levels’ used by front-line health-care providers, as I have now, that’s very concerning to me and I think that demands immediate attention from the government,” said Cook, who is also the opposition party’s health critic.

Information provided to the Sun from the PCs highlighted a shortage of paramedics in four Westman communities in the Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) region.

PMH hires 16 security guards to patrol BRHC

Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) has hired 16 new security guards called Institutional Safety Officers (ISOs) to patrol the Brandon Regional Health Centre (BRHC).

The officers were trained in Brandon through a combination of online and in-person learning with materials provided by Shared Health. They were taught by PMH certified instructors, who followed Manitoba Justice standards and procedures.

The class graduated Jan. 3, at a ceremony held in BRHC’s nurses residence gymnasium.

ISOs are licensed as peace officers, but in order to work in health-care environments, they need to be trained in crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques, search and investigation, evidence collecting and report writing.