Manitoba·NewThe head of the Manitoba Nurses Union says she’s concerned about a lack of transparency at Shared Health after the union obtained a report commissioned five years ago by the provincial health agency that found “safety lapses” at Winnipeg hospitals.Complaint comes after union obtained 2020 review finding ‘safety lapses’ at hospitalsOzten Shebahkeget · CBC News · Posted: Nov 08, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, says she wants to know why safety concerns at the Health Sciences Centre took so long to be addressed after a recently obtained security review by Shared Health found “lapses in safety” at Winnipeg’s largest hospital in 2020. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)The head of the Manitoba Nurses Union says she’s concerned about a lack of transparency at Shared Health after the union obtained a report commissioned by the provincial health agency that found “safety lapses” at Winnipeg hospitals five years ago.The unfair labour practice complaint against Shared Health was filed to the Manitoba Labour Board on Oct. 30, a union spokesperson told CBC News. The complaints allow workers or unions to seek recourse from the board over alleged unfair practices by their employer.Shared Health’s safety report was recently disclosed as part of proceedings involving a safety grievance the union filed against Winnipeg’s Victoria Hospital in February 2024, the spokesperson said.Union president Darlene Jackson said the report found “lapses in safety” at Winnipeg hospitals, corresponding with safety concerns she’s heard from nurses in the city over the years.”What I can say [is that the] the safety lapses are absolutely what we’ve heard from nurses about their lived experience of the facilities,” Jackson told CBC News on Friday.”It really begs the question, why did we have to file a grievance, you know, go to arbitration, file another grievance and then grey list [the Health Sciences Centre] in order to have these safety issues addressed?”The security review, conducted in 2019 and released to Shared Health in 2020, was developed as an “internal planning resource” to help the co-ordination of Manitoba’s health system, which was used to initiate several important safety measures, a Shared Health spokesperson told CBC News in an emailed statement.The spokesperson said they were unable to comment further on the report as the union’s complaint proceeds.The complaint comes alongside heightened concerns of violence at the HSC, as well as safety measures meant to improve conditions there.In August, the union said 94 per cent of HSC nurses voted in favour of “grey listing” Winnepeg’s largest hospital to discourage front-line workers from taking jobs there because of safety concerns..The vote followed a string of crimes around the central Winnipeg hospital, including sexual assaults of five people — two of them nurses — in early July.’Not there yet’In September, the province announced that two police officers would be stationed at the HSC around the clock.The officers, who were introduced into the hospital on Saturday, were called by hospital security to respond to a patient assaulting an on-call doctor the following day. A health-care aide and a nurse were assaulted by a patient at the same hospital on Oct. 19.AI-powered weapon detectors were also introduced at the hospital earlier this year.Shared Health has been working toward mitigating the safety risks at the hospital, “but we’re not there yet,” Jackson said, adding she would like to see the safety review released publicly. “I think transparency is important.”ABOUT THE AUTHORÖzten Shebahkeget is a member of Northwest Angle 33 First Nation who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End. She has been writing for CBC Manitoba since 2022. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and a master’s in writing.Email: ozten.shebahkeget@cbc.ca
Internal security review of Winnipeg hospitals sparks labour complaint by nurses union
