Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 13, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Q Winnipeg free november the Al Issue in the health by Terence Moore the Lyon government is Able to in its election to new hospitals it is old ones it is expanding or renovating and a few new programs it has undertaken to Deal with some of the provinces Long standing health care the new democratic opposition is Able to remind the electorate of the severe financial restraint the conservatives imposed on nursing Homes and the medical profession in its first year of both discourses Are curiously Remote from the realities that have confronted Manitoba healthcare Community during the last four the Lyon government boasts that health care represents a larger proportion of its budget than it did in the Schreyer governments though the present governments More significant accomplishment has been in cur tailing the rate of growth in health care costs had been frightening governments Canada throughout the and the crying which the government has not been Able to meet is not for new build Ings but for trained employees to work in the existing buildings and for new forms of which the Lyon government has been so that patients can receive the attention they heed without being admitted to a Hospital or a nursing i personnel shortage the most pressing and obvious prob lems in health in recent have been rapidly rising costs and the shortage of trained especially the Lyon during four years in has been successful in curbing the growth of largely by tightening the Finan Cial Belt on hospitals and nursing and leaving the institutions free work out their ways of cutting it has not solved the Nurs ing the government began its term by suspending construction of new hospitals and nursing Homes and putting institutions on a weightless Hospital budget were allowed to increase by just per cent from the last year of the Schreyer to the first year under the new nursing Home budgets were allowed to Rise by 4a per payments to Doc tors under medicare by just Over five per As a the total budget of the Manitoba health services com which finances the bulk of health care work in the Rose by less than five per increases in subsequent years have in step with seven Oaks Hospital is about on third open because it is very hard for the management to find the necessary healthcare wage so that the level of service has not been reduced since at the same the government relaxed its detailed control Over the operations of hospitals and nursing it awarded each of them a global budget based on previous years spending and left the Board and management of each institution free to spend that Money and allocate Man Power As they saw the institutions responded by reducing staff through by adopting a Tough stance in collective bargaining they faced strikes by support staff last year and by Laboratory technicians and technologists this year and by contracting out to specialized firms the management of such operations As food service and the Manitoba organization of nurses associations says the Quality of nursing service has declined As a Mona started asking its Mem Bers to file reports of cases where they find themselves Over worked in ways that lower the Quality of service they in a few institutions have responded by res Toring positions eliminated in 1978 but the Stream of overwork complaints Frank of the Manitoba medical says the nursing situation but that it results mainly from the Conti Nen twide shortage of rather than from government nurses in Short staffed Hospital wards find themselves in frighten ing situations where the number of patients requiring immediate Atten Tion exceeds the number of nurses on nurses find themselves literally running Between he the nursing shortage feeds on itself since nurses who find themselves Over worked and Are frustrated by their inability to provide the Quality of care their professional responsibility de mands Are inclined to adding to the government responded to the nursing shortage by authorizing last Winter a hefty pay increase for nurses in their current two year since according to Manitoba health organizations spokesman for the the attrition rate and the numbers of nursing positions employers Are unable to fill have Stabi the shortage is still but it has stopped getting Lyon government at the outset froze expansions and new construction of health planned under the preceding for fear of the costs when freeze was allowed to it turned out that the difficulty Lay not so much in finding the Money As in finding the seven Oaks Hospital was for but is still Only about on third open because management has been unable to find the required the quest for More nurses has led to the creation of a government advisory committee on nursing personnel and to proposals for new nursing Educ Fitlin programs at Brandon University of Winnipeg and Kee win Community College in the a shortage of nursing education opportunities is probably not the main Tea son for the shortage of the demanding nature of the including the extent to which it intrudes on evenings and makes it Given the rate of pay and the promotion relative to other pay in step this years pay increase Kep mahi Toba nursing pay in step with that offered in other Western provinces and has probably helped reduce the exodus of nurses from Manitoba to Greener pastures it has not assured nursing employers that they Willet the share they need of High school graduates making career choices Dur ing the next few nursing work needs to be made More the government and the Hospi tals have increased nurses workloads and the government has allowed doubts to persist and grow about the future of the health sciences centres excellent daycare one of its big staff the nursing shortage will presumably not be eased until hospitals and nursing either on their own or under pressure from find ways to make nursing a More Appeal ing most of the obvious ways of doing that involve spending a great Deal More the government has pursued the search for lowermost ways of car ing for it pays for nursing and housekeeping services provided at Home to patients who would otherwise be either neglected or kept in a Hospital or nursing it has encouraged hospitals and nursing Homes to provide adult Day care to patients who Are physically Able to live at Home but who require occasional attention for both social and medical u it is not yet Clear far those services Are easing the demand for Hospital and nursing Home admission and How far they Are reaching people who would otherwise simply be neg but either Home care and adult daycare represent Low Cost improvements to the health care offered to careers a better careers every Winnipeg free press Home delivery 957o550 no give take deals just simple you cant of Ford not to audio warehouse 1981 car truck sell out 5 Sapporo 4 Lebaron 4 Cordoba 1 new yorker 1 Caravelle 22 cars horizons 8 pickups vans 3 sport mans 14x4 ram Charger negotiate All of your Deal budget financing 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