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Winnipeg Free Press
07-08-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Unions, advocacy groups decry health-care ‘blame game
Organizations representing health-care workers and Manitoba patients say they're fed up with the NDP government 'playing the blame game' nearly two years into its mandate. In just the past week, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara's comments in Free Press stories included accusations that the previous Progressive Conservative government 'hid behind numbers they just made up' in an article about hiring new nurses and 'refused to sit down with (nurses)' on health-care concerns. Manitoba Health Coalition director Noah Schulz said he's grown weary of watching the blame for the province's struggling health-care system being punted back and forth, and wonders how much longer the NDP can claim to be 'picking up the pieces' of a previous government. 'There have been some important investments in health care, but it's just the tip, really, of that iceberg. It's unfortunate that, instead of taking that responsibility… a lot of that focus is on how bad the situation they inherited was, or how badly the PCs bungled things,' said the head of the non-profit group focused on protecting and expanding universal health care. 'We're not expecting everything to be turned around overnight, but it's not overnight, it's (nearly) two years now, and health care needs to be something that all governments prioritize, not a way that they score political points off each other.' Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Jason Linklater agreed, suggesting partisan politics needed to take a back seat. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Jason Linklater, Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Jason Linklater, Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals 'At many levels of the health-care system, including among some of the key players and decision-makers, the culture hasn't changed. It needs to,' he said in an email. 'If Manitobans don't get lower wait times and better access to care, they're not going to blame the party out of power. Manitobans can see through the political blame game. They want action from the people they elected.' At the Manitoba Nurses Union, president Darlene Jackson said that a new government promising to prioritize health care with a minister who previously worked as a nurse, had given union members a feeling of optimism that has waned in the time since, in part because of comments from the party in power. 'I can honestly say that I am, and I think nurses are, tired of the blame game of this government continuously blaming a previous government,' she said. 'We're almost two years into their mandate, the election promise was to ensure that they fixed health care — it was all about health care — and we are still waiting.' Opposition leader Obby Khan said the blame was being unfairly placed on a party with a new leader, with a 'new energy' and a 'new message.' 'You want to talk about a football being thrown back and forth? Well, the football is in (the NDP's) hands now, and they're fumbling it embarrassingly,' he said. 'And they're letting down Manitobans and health-care workers.' With a provincial byelection in Spruce Woods Aug. 26, Khan said the focus for the PC party is making that clear to voters. 'They solely campaigned on fixing health care, and two years in, health care is worse,' he said. (newletterPrompt) Asagwara, a former psychiatric nurse, said the reason for repeated references to the previous government is clear when discussing the current health-care crisis. 'I can certainly appreciate folks don't necessarily like to remember the damaging and the dark days of the PCs… my hope is that in being honest about how we got here, and in committing to not taking the same callous approach as the previous government, we will not only again repair the damage they did, but really make health care stronger for the long term,' Asagwara said. It is not the first time in Manitoba that health care has been kicked around as a political football. Depoliticizing health care is impossible, a spokesperson from physicians' advocacy organization Doctors Manitoba suggested. 'Any publicly funded service can never be separated from politics because politicians make funding and policy decisions, and because health care is the most personal and intimate service the government oversees, it is very dependent on political decisions and priorities,' the spokesperson said in an email. 'What matters most to physicians is that all political parties seek advice from doctors and other experts working in the system, invite feedback from the patients and citizens who use the system, and use evidence to guide their decisions.' University of Manitoba political studies adjunct professor Christopher Adams suggested that the back-and-forth is a natural response to how widespread and all-encompassing health-care failings have become in Manitoba and across Canada. 'I would say it's just natural for it to be a political football, and if the opposition isn't running with this, then they aren't doing their job,' he said. Malak AbasReporter Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak. Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
18-07-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Klinic directors fired days after scathing report released
Three senior-level directors have been fired from an inner-city health centre, the Free Press has learned. The terminations come on the heels of a third-party report that detailed staff concerns about a dysfunctional workplace, poor management and substandard safety practices. In an email dated Thursday and obtained by the Free Press, Klinic Community Health's executive director Deb Radi informed staff that three directors had their employment terminated and their roles eliminated earlier that day. 'These were difficult decisions, and they were not taken lightly,' Radi wrote in the email. 'We will be providing support to each one of these individuals as they navigate this challenging time.' Klinic, which provides health care and mental health resources, plays a critical role in the community, and every staff member deserves respect and support as they do 'this important, but difficult work,' she said. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Klinic Community Health at Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue provides health care and mental health resources. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Klinic Community Health at Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue provides health care and mental health resources. The names of the directors or their positions were not included in the email. On Wednesday, Klinic confirmed three doctors have resigned and will leave by the end of summer. Contacted by the Free Press, Radi said Klinic is unable to respond to specific HR matters. A 50-page report, conducted by Winnipeg-based consulting firm TLS Enterprises, was delivered to Klinic on Monday. The company interviewed 75 staff members and surveyed 128 employees and volunteers, some of whom described the centre as a dysfunctional workplace run by 'authoritarian leadership,' who didn't listen to concerns. It said staff felt unsafe working at the Sherbrook Street facility and listed an overdose and violent incidents in the centre's waiting area as examples. The report also found instances of racism and transphobia at the centre. The facility's board commissioned the report in the spring, after it received letters from employees alleging racism, transphobia, intimidation and bullying in the workplace. The report issued six recommendations, including redefining its drop-in services and creating a complaint reporting system for staff. Klinic board chair Kathy Majowski told the Free Press on Wednesday that all recommendations have been accepted and consultations with staff have begun. Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said if the three directors being terminated is linked to the report, those are the actions needed to begin fixing Klinic's workplace culture. 'Leadership really matters. And we've been saying that across the health-care system. The leadership sets the tone for everything,' he said Friday. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals The union, which represents more than 150 employees at Klinic, has heard about the management issues for several years, Linklater said. In March, the union offered to assist Klinic's board in completing a management review, Linklater said, but was told the board would undertake the process. He advocated for a review of management practices at Shared Health and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. The province needs to consult with unions to identify problem areas in management so reviews can happen quickly and deliver effective results, Linklater said. 'When an employer fails to support (health-care workers), this report shows how that relationship has been actively damaged,' Linklater said. 'It impacts trust and for that to change, we want to see all of the things that the board of directors has committed to do be followed.' The WRHA and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom.
