NDP promises to cut red tape for international health professionals wanting to work in Manitoba

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew on Friday outlined a five-step plan to speed up the process for internationally trained health-careworkers to start work in their specialized fields.

"There are hundreds of nurses and health-care professionals who could be working on the front lines right now," Kinew said at a news conference across the street fromConcordia Hospital in Winnipeg.

Too many health workers who were educated as nurses, doctors and health-care aides in other countries, and who are now living in Manitoba, are "getting bogged down in the regulatory process around credentialing," he said.

"Imagine what it's like to be one of these people now being asked to serve in a different career, perhaps even a totally different setting, because you can't get your credentials recognized.At a time of a staffing crisis here in Manitoba, surely we have to fix this situation."

WATCH | NDP Leader Wab Kinew talks about the health-care worker accreditation plan:

NDP make promise to address health-care staffing crisis

1 year ago

Duration 0:55

Wab Kinew outlines the NDP's five-step plan to hire more internationally educated health workers.

This is what New Democratsplanto do if they're elected Oct. 3:

• Create a newcomer workplace navigator office to support people going through the credentialing and registration process.
• Remove barriers like the permanent residency requirement for language courses.
• Providefinancial aid for internationally educated health-care workersto takerequired courses.
• Create more opportunities for health-care workers to get their requisite clinical hours.
• Bring colleges, academic institutions and health employers together to collaborate on registering more health professionals.

"Under the PC government, the path to get credentialed and registered is full of unfair barriers, prohibitive costs and red tape," said Malaya Marcelino, the NDP candidate for the Notre Dame riding.

Some internationally educated health-care workers can get stuck in a cycle of bureaucracy, waiting as long as seven years and paying thousands of dollars before they can work in their specialty in Manitoba, the party's news release said.

"They want to do the work they are trained for [but] this PC government is pushing them away to go and work in other provinces and Manitoba is losing out,"Marcelino said.

It's up to the province to take steps to remove the regulatory red tape, and the Progressive Conservatives have dragged their feet, Kinew said.

"The regulatory colleges are creatures of the provincial government, so it really is incumbenton a provincial government to move things along more quickly," he said.

Kinew also promisedto reinstate health coverage for international students studying at Manitoba post-secondary institutions.

Kinew said his five-step plan would cost $5.5 million per year.