[CUPE healthcare list] Manitoba puts $40M into nursing homes

["Irene Jansen" <ijansen@cupe.ca>]

Manitoba gov't puts $40M into improving *nursing* *home* *care*
The Canadian Press
Thu 29 Nov 2007
Section: Western Regional General News

WINNIPEG _ The Manitoba government is putting $40 million over
the next four years into improving care for seniors in nursing
homes.

The cash will be used to hire 400 health-care workers, including
hundreds more nurses.

Health Minister Theresa Oswald called the investment part of the
first major overhaul of *nursing* *home* standards in decades.

Under the changes, every resident can expect to have 3.6 hours a
day of nursing care, and every shift in every home will include
nurses and health-care aides on duty at the same time.

Currently, Manitoba institutions are not required to have
registered nurses on every unit.

Oswald also announced the province will spring surprise
inspections to ensure nursing homes meet the new standards.

*Nursing* *home* jobs are often the last to be filled during a
staffing shortage because the workload is so heavy.

Thin staffing in nursing homes has been a sore point in the
health-care system for many years.

Two separate judicial inquests on *nursing*-*home* deaths in the
1990s flagged the issue, and unions called on government in 2000 to
withhold funding from nursing homes that skimped on staffing.

The minister admitted staffing standards in nursing homes were
hopelessly outdated.

There are 10,000 seniors living in Manitoba nursing homes, 5,600
in Winnipeg.

Alzheimer Society president Judy Mathieson welcomed the new
funding.

(Winnipeg Free Press)
Copyright © 2007 The Canadian Press
Idnumber: 200711290581
Length: 221 words