Yesterday, MAHCP submitted recommendations to the Honourable Adrian Sala, Minister of Finance, in anticipation of the development of the 2024/25 provincial budget.
For allied health, this is a critical budget – Manitoba is at a tipping point – and our provincial government must make immediate and long-overdue investments across the health-care system.
As we prepare for collective bargaining with the March 31, 2024, expiry of our central table collective agreements, MAHCP is calling on our new government to design, fund and implement a strategic and long-term human resource plan, and to acknowledge that without significant investment in allied health, Manitoba cannot have a strong, sustainable public health care system.
Our recommendations are:
- Focus on critical retention & recruitment initiatives.
- Deliver much-needed improvements to health-care employee benefits and supports to bolster staff resilience and boost Manitoba’s competitiveness.
- Expand training for high-demand allied health professions, including more accessible opportunities and incentives for rural and Northern Manitobans.
As members of multi-disciplinary teams working alongside nurses and physicians in hospitals, clinics and community, allied health professionals are an integral part of the solution to Manitoba’s health-care crisis. We are at the very foundation of the system, contributing through diagnostics, analysis, assessment and therapy, and there aren’t enough of us.