Dear MAHCP members,
Today, April 7, 2017, we learned details of the WRHA’s major announcement on how our health care facilities will be changing.
The WRHA informed the public and staff that their plan is to consolidate “services at specific sites to capitalize on their strengths, position them to deliver improved quality and timeliness of care, and permit the concentration of valuable resources, such as diagnostic services and specialty physician consultation, currently spread over multiple sites” (this is from a WRHA document provided to us).
What we know so far is that emergency and acute health services will be consolidated at three sites: Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital and Grace Hospital.
Seven Oaks Hospital and Victoria Hospital will become two Urgent Care Centres, while Concordia, Misericordia, Deer Lodge and Riverview will be “specialized” community hospitals and health centres.
My thoughts on today’s announcement are the following:
- Given the information we learned today, MAHCP will be concentrating on ensuring that our members are supported so that they can continue to provide the excellent patient care that Manitobans deserve.
- We will continue to press the WRHA to get specific information of how these changes will affect the services provided by our allied health professionals as well as specifics regarding where these services will be provided.
- We continue to be very concerned about the cumulative effects on the Manitoba health care system and patient care given recent legislation around wage limits.
Yes, this is indeed disruptive, but members can be assured that we will continue to meet with WRHA officials to find out the exact details of their plan. We understand that members are looking for answers and are concerned that they may not have a position or it may be in a different facility. WRHA officials have told us that “there will be jobs for everybody who wants one,” and we will hold them to that.
We will continue to share information with our membership over the coming days, weeks and months. This will be a long process, and one that will require much patience.
In solidarity,
Bob Moroz
MAHCP President