Manitoba Nurses Union votes to grey-list Thompson hospital due to safety concerns

Members of the Manitoba Nurses Union have voted overwhelmingly in favour of grey-listing a second hospital in the province due to unsafe working conditions.

Union president Darlene Jackson told Global Winnipeg that around 97 per cent of nurses voted in favour of the measure on Friday at Thompson General Hospital after a shooting and stabbing there this year.

Earlier this summer, nurses voted to grey-list Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre — a measure that discourages nurses from working at a facility that’s deemed unsafe — after a string of sexual assaults in and around.

Jackson said she’s not surprised by the results of the Thompson vote.

“I think nurses in Thompson recognize that in order to have their issues looked at and resolved, I think they realize that this is the only way,” she said.

“It’s ridiculous that it comes to this — that you have to grey-list to get some attention.”

The union says it has a meeting with Northern Health on Tuesday before formally enacting the grey-list designation. Jackson said it’s a last resort that hopefully doesn’t need to happen, and that the employer has already been in contact about resolving the situation.

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“Our hope is always to avoid actually grey-listing if we can, and if the employer reaches out and does what they need to do, then we will avoid grey-listing,” she said.

One of the items on the nurses’ wish-list is institutional safety officers, which Jackson said has been an ask ever since the violent incidents took place.

“We were promised institutional safety officers in Thompson right around the time of the shooting, when bullets were fired within the facility, and we have not seen those there yet.

“In their emergency department waiting room, a patient was stabbed, so it’s not safe for anyone in that facility right now.”

Jackson says they’ve been asking for institutional safety officers at the hospital, but nothing has been done.

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A nurse at the Thompson hospital — who Global News agreed not to identify as she’s speaking out about her workplace — told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that she and many of her co-workers continue to have serious safety concerns, which she feels have fallen on deaf ears.

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“Nothing is being done … or it’s so slow, and we don’t see any results,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that it has to come to these extreme measures, honestly.”

The nurse said the hospital doesn’t have metal detectors or panic buttons, and that has contributed to widespread fear and anxiety among staff.

“We have no way of knowing what one shift to another is going to bring. We have no metal detectors, nobody is screening for weapons.

“Nurses are scared to go to work.”

The union said last week it’s considering grey-listing other hospitals in the province if safety measures aren’t taken, in the aftermath of a sexual assault at the St. Boniface Hospital parkade.

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