The Manitoba government plans to create two committees as part of its promise to improve health services.
A bill now advancing to the legislature would create a group to come up with precise nurse-to-patient ratios and recommend which areas of health care, such as intensive care units, should be subject to those numbers.
Another bill would allow the health minister to set staffing levels and other standards for health care providers, with the aim of ending mandatory overtime for nurses.
The bill would allow for a committee to advise ministers on how to proceed.
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The NDP government has pledged to increase the number of nurses, and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the law sets a framework for achieving that goal.
The opposition Progressive Conservatives said health care unions had raised questions about whether there were enough workers to meet the government’s goals.
Asagwara said the NDP government has hired more nurses and other health professionals, and the bill will help improve patient care.
“We are saying very clearly to nurses and health care providers and the system as a whole that patient safety and quality of care… must be the top priority,” Asagwara said.
The government has been reviewing similar measures taken in British Columbia, Asagwara said.
If the bill is passed into law and guidelines are established to eliminate mandatory overtime work for nurses, overtime work would still be allowed in certain circumstances, such as scenarios where a patient’s life or health is at risk, or in a major disaster.
Tory health critic Kathleen Cook said details of the government’s plans were still lacking.
“We need to make sure that this bill is more than just symbolic,” he said.
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