It’s time to fix the staffing crisis.
Allied health professionals are there for Manitoba patients and families at every step of the patient journey: from prevention to emergency response, from diagnosis to treatment, right through to rehabilitation and recovery.
As highly specialized members of your health-care team, allied health professionals are at the very foundation of the health-care system.
Due to years of cuts, closures and consolidations, allied health is critically understaffed, and struggling to deliver the essential services Manitobans need and deserve. We want to be there for you when you need us, but there isn’t enough of us.
Allied health professionals are an essential part of the solution to Manitoba’s health-care crisis. More of us means better care for you.
Who is allied health?
“Diagnostic information is critical to physicians’ work. More than 80% of the information your doctor needs to make a possible diagnosis and design a treatment plan will come from allied health.”
– Jason linklater, mahcp president
Allied health professionals are specially trained individuals, often with certifications or licenses, and we contribute across the health-care system.
MAHCP represents 85% of all allied health professionals working in Manitoba. Our 7,000+ members work in 44 professions in hospitals and clinics, in labs and ambulances, in ICUs and in the community.
- Need an X-ray for a suspected fracture, or a cast to heal a broken bone?
- Been given a requisition for blood work from your physician?
- In need of physiotherapy or occupational therapy after surgery?
- Receiving radiation therapy to treat a cancer, or seeking mental health support to deal with the difficult diagnosis?
This is allied health. We’re paramedics, perfusionists, psychologists and pharmacists. We’re sonographers, social workers, spiritual care, and speech language pathologists, among many other critical health-care professionals. And patients encounter us all the way along their care journey.
Share your story.
Share your patient perspective with us. If you’ve experienced a health challenge or crisis recently, and been a patient in Manitoba’s health-care system, you know it takes patience and perseverance to go through it and heal. And allied health professionals are there to guide you.
We invite you to share your hopeful and inspiring experiences as a patient to help us tell great stories about allied health’s valuable contributions, and advocate on behalf of the professions we represent. For example:
- Did someone go above and beyond to support you through a difficult treatment?
- Who had a profound impact on your healing, your outlook or your well-being?
- Was there a particular professional who calmed your nerves before a stressful test, or worked with you to make strides after a surgery, health emergency or accident?
- Did someone connect you with services you needed to improve, or communicate with your family members to help put their minds at ease?
Our recommendations
The current staffing crisis didn’t happen overnight.
It’s time to get health care back on track by filling position vacancies promptly, addressing damaged workplace culture, providing better wages, and improving recruitment and retention initiatives. When Manitoba loses professional/technical and paramedic allied health staff to other opportunities, they are very difficult to replace.
Read more about the impact of allied health staffing shortages on patient care…
In our 2024 pre-budget submission, MAHCP recommended three main areas for critical allied health investment (featuring 10 sub-recommendations):
- 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.
