7 Brandon health-care workers laid off over funding constraints: CUPE

Seven health-care workers at Brandon Clinic were told they no longer have jobs, which one nurse said will have a significant impact on patient care.

"Many patients will be displaced because of this," said Dawna Klemick, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 2096 president and one of the nurses who received a layoff notice Friday.

"It isn't even about us losing our jobs, as disappointing as that is. Our patients are going to be missing out."

Five full-time nurses, one casual nurse and one worker in a transcription position were given layoff notices. These nurses provide walk-in services, biopsies, excisions, mental health exams, pediatric support and other services at the private clinic, according to a release from CUPE Manitoba.

"These things will now have to be done at outpatient care at the Brandon Regional Health, and they too are overwhelmed, and so this is going to take longer for these things to be done," Klemick said.

Forty-four health-care workers at the clinic are members of CUPE Local 2096.

The clinic is one of the largest in western Manitoba, Klemick added. Patients come in from communities outside Brandon, including some from Saskatchewan and also Winnipeg.

"We have people coming from Winnipeg who might have started out in Brandon but kept their family doctor here because they can't find doctors anywhere else," Klemick said.

Thomas Linner, Manitoba Health Coalition provincial director, said not only is the clinic essential to delivering primary care in Westman, but Brandon itself is a hub for health care in the province.

"It's really distressing," he said. "I think that we are at risk of seeing Manitobans lose access across the province to really crucial primary care, which is where we catch problems before they get worse."

CUPE, health coalition call on province to step in

CUPE Manitoba and the Manitoba Health Coalition are demanding the provincial government work with the clinic to have the layoff notices withdrawn.

The provincial government does not provide operational funding to the clinic, as the clinic is a private company, a government spokesperson said in an email.

Brandon Clinic has not responded to CBC's request to explain the reason for the layoffs. The release from CUPE Manitoba stated that the seven workers were laid off due to "funding constraints."

Klemick said a shortage in doctors has led to a lack of revenue for the clinic.

"We're just upset that the government isn't taking the … health-care sector seriously," she said. "There's been no government help."

Linner said more people could end up in hospital emergency rooms because of the loss of primary care services.

"That's something that the government has to take a vested interest in, regardless of whether or not the clinics that we are talking about happen to be private or public at this point," he said. 

"We need people to be able to have access to those services."