Work schedules for more than a 1000 nurses are changing at St. Boniface Hospital.

The moves are part of the province's ongoing consolidation of health services across Winnipeg.

Rotations and shifts are being altered for 1000 nurses at the hospital and 50 nurses will be recruited to work on site.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says the changes are needed to better staff the surgical unit, make senior nurses available at all hours and cut down on sick time and OT.

"It's really about trying to create a very good rotation that meets the needs of the patient, supports the work life balance," said Krista Williams, WRHA chief health operations officer.

But the Manitoba Nurses Union calls the changes disruptive.

“We're reorganizing to consolidate care and again it's not proven to us that this is going to make any difference at the end of the day,” said Sandi Mowat, MNU president.

The WRHA says 250 support staff positions, including health care aides, will also be impacted at Health Sciences Centre.

Criteria for Outpatient PHYSIOTHERAPY Service

  • Tendon transfers, repairs or reconstructions
  • Ligament transfers, repairs or reconstructions
  • Polytrauma or multiple fractures
  • Periarticular fractures
  • Joint dislocations with labral repair or stabilization
  • Joint capsule adhesion release
  • Manipulation/lysis of adhesions
  • Nerve repairs or transfers
  • Peripheral motor nerve deficits
  • Brachial plexus reconstructions
  • Complex spinal surgeries
  • Dupuytren’s contracture release
  • Complex regional pain syndrome
  • Hand or wrist joint arthroplasty
  • Elbow joint arthroplasty
  • Complex total joint revision
  • Post-operative complications such as non-union

Criteria for Outpatient OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY Service

  • Complex hand reconstruction,
  • Wrist and elbow joint reconstructions
  • Capsulotomy
  • Joint arthroplasty
  • Newly Diagnosed or Acute Flare Rheumatic Diseases
  • Rheumatoid hand reconstruction
  • Tendon transfers
  • Nerve transfers
  • Nerve repairs with or without graft
  • Complex Dupuytrens
  • Revascularization procedures
  • Replantation surgeries
  • Revision procedures involving tenolysis, pulley reconstruction and osteotomies.
  • Extensor tendon reconstruction
  • Brachial plexus transfers
  • Skin grafts
  • Contracture releases, fasciectomy/subcutaneous aponeurotomy
  • Flexor and extensor tendon injury/repair – all zones
  • Complex  upper extremity fractures
  • ORIF of a proximal phalanx