The President of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals Bob Moroz was in Flin Flon last week as part of this northern tour.  His union represents all health care professionals who are not doctors or nurses with about 300 in the north and he says staffing is the big issue. He explains it’s really really difficult to recruit folks to towns like Flin Flon or even smaller towns and when they do recruit, people stick around for a little while gain some experience and want to move onto a bigger centre down to Brandon, Dauphin or Winnipeg if they can so it’s a real problem with places like this so we’re chronically short staffed.  He says people come in and when they talk to them you can see the weariness in their eyes and it’s important for people to understand the work that they do and how hard they work and when there’s not enough of them they have to work harder as people still need those tests, people still need that physiotherapy, they still need the community programs that their members provide.

Moroz adds the Health Regions have things in place to attract people to the north but it’s difficult to keep them here while those who are from the north tend to stay.