Union says Manitoba respiratory therapists ‘in crisis mode’ amid staffing shortage

A union representing thousands of allied health-care workers in Manitoba has warned that the provincewide shortage of respiratory therapists threatens to worsen with a wave of retirements on the horizon and an inadequate number of graduates in the pipeline.

According to the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, there are 50 vacant respiratory therapist positions in Winnipeg’s three acute care centers alone, along with several positions in smaller rural hospitals.

“They’re in crisis mode,” MAHCP President Jason Linklater said. “They’re running from the ER to the ICU (and) back and they’re having to make decisions about which patients are prioritized in given situations and that’s a big problem.”

The union — which represents about 7,500 employees working in diagnostic, medical, rehabilitation, assessment, laboratories, long-term care and other settings — said a recent internal schedule shows there are currently hundreds of unclaimed respiratory therapist shifts throughout the system.

That’s increasing the pressure on respiratory therapists, who have clocked nearly 90,000 overtime hours over the past two years, MAHCP said in a news release Tuesday.

Linklater said a quarter (25 per cent) of respiratory therapy positions at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg are currently unfilled. According to MAHCP, four out of 10 posts are vacant at Grace Hospital (42 per cent) and St. Boniface Hospital (36 per cent) respectively.

RTs there in ‘critical circumstances’

Sheree Gigolik has worked at St. Boniface Hospital for 35 years and says many people may not know about the important role respiratory therapists play in critical health conditions.

“Normally most people don’t see us in the hospital,” Gigolic said. “We’re only there in the most extreme circumstances.”

He said respiratory therapists are also practicing advanced Inter-facility hospital transfer and transportation of patients from rural areas.

are embedded within something Virtual Emergency Care and Transfer Resource Service, or VECTRS, an emergency care service center opened by Progressive Conservatives Which provides clinical guidance and patient transport support for health care workers throughout Manitoba.

Gigolic has seen how job demands and workforce shortages have evolved in recent years.

“There is no priority being given to acuity because when you’re looking at the patients we’re dealing with, everything is at maximum acuity,” he said.

“A lot of times we’re just trying to figure out how we can get from one critical incident to another pending incident, especially if we don’t have enough staff to be in two critical situations at the same time. So, it can be overwhelming.”

Staffing stable: union

The number of respiratory therapists has not improved from before the COVID-19 pandemic — there were 347 in 2019 compared to 346 in 2024, according to MAHCP’s own annual report.

Linklater says staffing hasn’t changed much in years, which is even more worrisome when considering the ongoing exodus of baby boomers from the workforce and new data from Statistics Canada showing Winnipeg’s population has topped 850,000.

By 2023, nearly one in five of the 13,400 respiratory therapists nationwide will be over the age of 50, according to StatsCan.

That’s why the federal agency has classified respiratory therapy as “labor category” for many years.high risk of shortage“Between 2024 and 2033.

StatsCan says that between 2021-23 “demand significantly exceeds labor supply.”

Respiratory therapist vacancy rates are also tied to established baseline staffing ratios that have not changed over the years due to increasing demands, patient acuity and increased population levels, Linklater said.

“The true vacancy rate is probably much higher,” he said. “The level of investment, particularly when it comes to dealing with staffing, is nowhere near where it should be.”

Doubling the intake at U of M

The province and the University of Manitoba announced in 2024 that they will double the annual intake for the three-year program to 40 students.

According to MAHCP, this year’s group currently consists of 23 students in their first year and 21 students in their second year of study, with only a dozen third-year students expected to graduate this spring.

Linklater said this is not enough to account for retirements and resignations or to “make a dent” in the number of vacancies.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the provincial recruitment and retention initiative added 16 respiratory therapists to the system last year, after losing 17 during the last five years of the Tory government.

He said respiratory therapists “have seen “Improvements through their collective agreement, including increased shift premiums and rural and northern differentials.”

“At the same time, we are focusing on awareness, education and early job connections so more people choose this profession and build long-term careers in Manitoba,” Asagwara said in a statement.

‘People are moving forward’

Linklater called on the province to enforce those existing ICU, emergency and urgent care premiums — something respiratory therapists have had to go to arbitration for and still hasn’t done, according to Gigolyk.

“It’s kind of insulting … it’s almost insulting to us to have to go to arbitration to get compensation for something that was stipulated in a contract,” he said.

“I’m not a big complainer… but this was negotiated… it was not followed through and we are seeing the consequences. People are retiring, people are moving on.”