Steinbach and Ste. Anne are facing significant healthcare challenges, including staffing shortages and reduced hospital hours, but Manitoba’s Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-term Care says the province is committed to strengthening rural healthcare. Uzoma Asagwara, who recently visited the region as part of a listening tour, says the government is working to recruit and retain healthcare workers, expand training opportunities and collaborate with local communities to improve services.
Listening to frontline workers
Minister Asagwara has been engaging directly with frontline health-care workers through a listening tour across the province. Since taking office, they visited several health-care sites, including the Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach, to hear from those providing care at the bedside.
“We’ve heard their concerns, we’ve heard their ideas, their hopes for health care,” Asagwara says. “The premier and I have made a point of being accessible to health-care staff because we know that the solutions to the challenges in health care come from the frontline.”
The minister says they heard from a large number of health-care professionals during their stop in Steinbach as they met with nurses, doctors, social workers and others involved in patient care.
“Our goal is to keep listening,” they say. “These are the health-care workers who have always shown up for Manitobans, no matter what was going on in government, no matter what was going on via COVID or any other challenge.”
Concerns in Steinbach and Ste. Anne
Asagwara has heard about staffing shortages and the impact of reduced hours at Ste. Anne Hospital, which has put additional strain on Bethesda Regional Health Centre.
“What I know is that when you make decisions like closing major emergency rooms, when you close EMS stations in rural Manitoba—23 of them were closed in the previous government—when you cut over 80,000 hours of rural ER time and fire hundreds of health-care workers, there are real consequences,” Asagwara says.
They report that the province has been working to address these issues through recruitment and retention initiatives, having initially set a target of hiring 1,000 new health-care workers. But Asagwara says they have already surpassed that number, adding 1,255 new frontline staff.
“We know there’s much more work to do,” they say. “But we’re continuing to do the work.”
Building partnerships in Steinbach
Asagwara says their visit to the Bethesda Regional Health Centre left a lasting impression, particularly the enthusiasm of health-care workers and community members.
“They were literally offering up their clinic space. They were offering up expertise and excited to partner with government to strengthen health care. They were like, ‘Let’s try an innovative idea here first.’”
Asagwara says they are eager to continue building relationships with health-care teams and community organizations in Steinbach, like the Bethesda Foundation, as well as in Ste. Anne and beyond to strengthen services across the province.
“The generosity of spirit has not left me since that listening tour stop,” they say. “I look forward to a continued relationship.”
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