Opinion

“I believe that we are accountable to the public for the commitments we make as a government. Our commitment was to add … 2,000 more health professionals. We are providing the public with information on our achievements towards that goal, which is nearly 900 additional health professionals. That is what I believe the public wants to know.”

— Health Minister Audrey Gordon

With all due respect to Health Minister Audrey Gordon, very little proof has been made available to back up her claim about hires in the health-care sector. And that’s not for a lack of trying on our part.

In a press release issued May 4, Gordon announced the province had hired 259 nurses, 73 physicians, 438 health-care aides, 82 allied health-care providers and 32 physician assistants and clinical assistants. She called news of these hires “substantial.”

This may well be true, but finding evidence of these new hires has been a difficult endeavour for media in Winnipeg and Brandon.

The day following the announcement, we contacted the province to seek clarification and a breakdown of the numbers. Where were these new hires placed? How many came to western Manitoba and Prairie Mountain Health?

A provincial spokesperson gave us a rather cryptic response:

“Every individual health provider determines their own career path — the province can’t and won’t dictate where they work, but incentives and opportunities are being created to support deployment of the health workforce where they’re needed most,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Recruitment efforts are focused on the areas of greatest need, so it follows that those are some of the most in-demand positions and hardest to recruit because that need is global.”

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, did not have anything tangible to offer in terms of the province’s new hires, except to question how many of the new 259 nurses still remained in their jobs.

When faced with questions from reporters over the past week, the minister has not done herself any favours. A report from our sister paper, the Winnipeg Free Press, this week stated that Gordon won’t answer if there has been a net gain or loss in the government’s effort to recruit more health-care providers.

It only stands to reason that during a time when Manitoba’s health-care situation is in crisis, and when regional health authorities across the province are all gasping for more staff — from doctors and nurses to everything in between — having the numbers to show a net gain in staffing levels would be an important part of the government’s messaging, as a means to back up that claim.

The fact the minister thinks the public doesn’t want to know this information — or at least gives lip service to that idea — suggests a poorly planned communications strategy. If the news was good, why not crow about it?

At this point, we simply can’t verify these numbers. But we can make a few comparisons to data we reported earlier this year.

More than a month ago, the Sun reported on some of the open job numbers that were available through the Prairie Mountain Health careers page. At the end of March, and in Brandon specifically, there were 37 openings for health-care aides, 28 positions for licensed practical nurses, 37 registered nurse positions and two openings for nurse practitioners.

As of yesterday, there were 27 health-care aide positions open, 28 LPN positions, 40 registered nurse positions, and one remaining nurse practitioner position available at the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

When it comes to physicians and specialists, according to its website, Prairie Mountain Health is still recruiting anesthesiologists for Brandon, along with hospitalists, a cardiologist, two urologists, an orthopedic surgeon and three emergency room physicians, along with family doctors in at least 15 different communities. As far as we can tell, nothing has changed in the last month in this regard.

So there has been some progress. But we also know PMH has been stepping up recruiting efforts for years, and it’s difficult to say with any certainty that the Stefanson government has had any direct impact on those efforts. No doubt Gordon would like the public to believe the province has been successful in its enhanced recruitment efforts, but it’s hard to trust such numbers without verifiable proof, particularly in what promises to be a particularly combative election year.

In a recent media report, University of Manitoba Prof. Karine Levasseur said the public deserves information so it can make “an informed decision about the legitimacy of this government.”

“If only part of the information is being received and not the entirety of the information, are we getting a clear picture? Why is the minister refusing to answer a valid question from journalists?” she said.

To be honest, minister, we think the public wants to know that, too.