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The Manitoba Nurses Union is urging the provincial government to immediately form the committee that will roll out nurse-to-patient ratios.
The call comes after the province’s legislation to establish the ratios passed earlier this week. It was originally introduced in March.
“The legislation is basically, you know, what I think of as a guarantee that nurse-patient ratios are going to continue once we set them up,” said Darlene Jackson, president of the union. “That’s good news for nurses in Manitoba. Now we just have to kind of get cracking on getting this implementation going.”
On Friday, a subcommittee that included representatives from the government, health system employers and the union released a summary report with recommendation that included suggested ratios for both acute and non-acute areas.
It also outlined a rural and northern framework.
One example of suggested ratios was one nurse for every two to three patients in the emergency department for general acute care. Adult intensive care, the report recommends, should have one nurse for every one to two patients.
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Implementing the ratios will still fall on a separate committee, which Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said would be formed soon.
“It’s that committee that’s going to not only look at the recommendations that are part of the report, but look at the landscape of health-care in Manitoba, talk to nurses on the front lines, understand the dynamic and unique needs of different sites to replicate as well,” Asagwara said.
The minister acknowledged there’s a number of recommendations in the report and it will take time to implement them all.
But Asagwara also praised the passage of the legislation, noting it’s the first in the country to legislate ratios. British Columbia put in ratios in 2023, but that was done by policy changes, while Asagwara says having it done through legislation ensures the work needed “is embedded in law.
Establishing that implementation committee should have been “up and running already,” Jackson told Global News, adding the law doesn’t outline what those ratios could be.
“We are now into June and the implementation committee has not been finalized,” she said. “It’s taking longer than nurses wanted to because nurses are anxious for nurse-patient ratios to happen.”
By having ratios, Jackson said it allows for nurses to spend more time with their patients. She said this can improve quality of care, decrease the length of stay and reduce readmissions in patients because that extra time was given.
Jackson is hoping the committee will be established soon, though she’d like to see it as soon as next week.
“I want safer patient care in this province, so the sooner the better as far as I’m concerned,” Jackson said. “Next week, whatever happens.”
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