Manitoba’s home and long-term care staffing at breaking point: report

A new report is sounding the alarm on staffing issues still plaguing Manitoba long-term and home care years after the pandemic exposed the health-care system’s vulnerabilities.

It says the situation is facing a breaking point.

The report was released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It notes while the COVID-19 pandemic exposed widening gaps in the province’s health-care system, with the loss of over 700 residents in personal care homes, staffing continues to be an ongoing stressor.

“We found that there hasn't been a lot of improvement in terms of alleviating that staffing burden that staff faced during the COVID pandemic,” senior researcher Niall Harney said in an interview Thursday on CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.

Results are based on a 2022 Probe Research survey of over a thousand unionized, public long-term and home care staff from across Manitoba.

Respondents indicated persistent short staffing and increased overtime hours are driving high levels of workplace stress and burnout.

Some of the key takeaways – 68 per cent of respondents working in long-term care and 64 per cent in home care reported working short staffed at least a few times per week, with 22 per cent in long-term care and 35 per cent in home care working short on a daily basis.

“Most people still feel rushed at work every day. They still feel that they are having an oversized burden at work, and that they're still working the same amount of overtime as they were during the pandemic,” Harney said.

Also alarming – over 50 per cent of long-term care and home care staff indicated they are either very or somewhat likely to leave the profession in the next five years.

Manitoba had the highest per capita levels of COVID-19 infections in long-term care homes. Harney notes staffing levels were already low leading up to the pandemic, and the virus exposed how vulnerable the system was.

Since then, not enough has changed, Harney says.

He notes the province took quick action to implement some of the recommendations in the Stevenson Report. The review was commissioned by the province after 56 residents died during a COVID outbreak at Maple Personal Care Home in late 2020.

Still, Harney believes more work and investment is needed.

“What we're really calling for in this report is a transformative investment,” he said.

“We calculate that an investment of about $180 million in the sector could bring home care staffing levels and long-term care staffing levels up to some of the highest standards in the country, and really be in line with what researchers have been calling for for a long time.”

SENIORS STRATEGY EARMARKS $34 MILLION FOR KEY INITIATIVES: PROVINCE

When asked for comment on the report, a spokesperson for Manitoba’s Minister of Seniors and Long-Term Care Scott Johnston pointed to the province’s new seniors strategy released last winter, which was compiled after ‘extensive consultations’.

“Since the release of the strategy, over $34 million was committed to multiple key initiatives, many of which focus on creating safe, inclusive, accessible communities for seniors,” the statement said.

The report also follows the province’s June pledge to allot $16 million to increase staffing and training in personal care homes.

The money will fund the recruitment and hiring of more than 350 health-care aides, 72 new positions for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, new medical leads to helm the province’s personal care homes, and $1.5 million in tuition supports and direct care staff recruitment.

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé