Winnipeg Free Press
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Pregnant women from northern Manitoba are increasingly transferred to southern hospitals to give birth because of nursing shortages.
Pregnant women from northern Manitoba are increasingly transferred to southern hospitals to give birth because of nursing shortages.
St. Anthony's General Hospital in The Pas was one of two northern hospitals, along with Thompson, where women with high-risk pregnancies could give birth, but recently high-risk deliveries in The Pas were halted because of a lack of staff in the obstetrics unit, Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said.
Jackson estimated the unit has a 50 per cent vacancy rate. As a result, she said women are transferred to Winnipeg, Brandon, or Thompson to give birth. The union was alerted to the issue last fall, but since December, the obstetrics unit has lost four nurses and no new nurses have been recruited.