Southern Health absent in provincewide security upgrade announcement

Health care unions say Southern Health’s exclusion from provincewide security upgrades prove Manitoba’s approach to hospital safety is reactionary rather than preventative.

On Feb 19, the province revealed safety measures for sites in Winnipeg, Thompson and the Prairie Mountain Health region.

The roll-out includes the SAFE mobile app, which offers real-time safety alerts for staff at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital and the Brandon Regional Health Centre. The province will also add five new institutional safety officers (ISOs) to Thompson’s hospital by March, upping the province’s total to 128.

Health Sciences Centre has 60 ISOs, Prairie Mountain Health has 20, St. Boniface Hospital and Victoria Hospital both have 18 and Selkirk Mental Health Centre has 12. Southern Health has no ISOs.

Jason Linklater, president for the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said much of the announcement concentrates on Winnipeg, while safety at rural facilities remains unaddressed.

“Safety is big reason why they (the province) have trouble with recruitment and retention,” he said. “There are a lot of incidents that are not dealt with appropriately in rural Manitoba.”

Roughly 1,000 incident reports were filed in 2025 across the health region, a drop from 1,500 in 2024, according Southern Health. The reports include incidents when the RCMP were called and verbal, emotional, financial, sexual or physical abuse.

Linklater said paramedics have reported a rise in violence across Manitoba, including Southern Health, causing some to be afraid when responding to calls. Some ambulance calls were left unanswered due to safety concerns and having no police available, he added.

“I think that until it affects them politically, the government tends not to engage in fixing problems,” Linklater said.

The health region is hiring a safety manager, who will develop a regional safety plan, a Southern Health spokesperson said in an email statement. Five First Nation safety officers will return to the Portage District General Hospital in the spring, following a three-month pilot project with Long Plain First Nation beginning in December 2024. One safety officer will be at the site at all times.

“We remain committed to fostering a safe environment for patients, residents, staff, and visitors, and we continue to strengthen prevention, reporting, and response processes across our sites,” the spokesperson said.

The statement didn’t say what safety measures other facilities such as the Bethesda Regional Health Centre have in place.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the absence of Southern Health facilities from the announcement worries her because she’s heard of safety issues at hospitals in Steinbach, Winkler and Portage la Prairie.

She said the announcement reinforces that the province is more reactive than proactive when addressing safety, labeling Manitoba’s actions as a “knee-jerk response.”

“Rather than wait until an incident happens, I would love to see them actually work towards doing something before that incident happens,” she told The Carillon.

On Feb. 20, nurses at St. Boniface Hospital voted to grey-list the facility, a union move that dissuades nurses from seeking jobs there. The hospital marked the third time the union used the measure since August, joining HSC and Thompson’s hospital.

Until a hospital is grey-listed, Jackson said the province takes no action in addressing safety concerns.

“Why does something heinous have to happen in order for this government to react,” she said.

Southern Health and other employers have given the union vague responses when incidents happen, which makes it difficult to follow-up with members if the union doesn’t know who they are or where they’re from, said Jackson.

“Unless the nurse reaches out herself to the union, we don’t often know what’s happening,” she said.

A Doctors Manitoba spokesperson said they’ve heard doctors across the province, including Southern Health, share safety concerns. Any provincial plan needs to include all health regions, they said.

”Doctors have actively offered advice for improvements for some time and believe every health facility should be safe and accessible to everyone,” the spokesperson said in an email statement.

Members raised the need for issuing faster safety incident notices, better training for deescalation practices and clarity on how to report incidents, the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said there is “ongoing work” to strengthen incident reporting culture in Southern Health. The health authority has also run emergency preparedness exercises, they said.