MAHCP celebrates allied- health workers, encourages government to create workforce plan
The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP) recognized its 7,000-plus specialized members with tributes, games such as Allied Health Jeopardy, swag bags and contests during last week’s Allied Healthcare Professionals Recognition Week (May 11-17), and is continuing to press the provincial government for an overall workforce plan to improve the retention and recruitment of allied-health workers.
MAHCP president Jason Linklater extended his best to all the union’s members, who play a vital role in Manitoba’s healthcare system.
“This week, I want to recognize your unwavering commitment to patients, clients, and residents. As a fellow allied health professional and a Manitoban, I am grateful for everything you do to support our well-being,” said Linklater in an online post. “Thank you, on behalf of all MAHCP staff and council members, for the significant difference you make every day in people’s lives.”
To help celebrate its members and create more public awareness of what allied health workers do, MAHCP created a Wall of Fame at its Winnipeg-based headquarters, as well as online. It showcases dozens of allied health specializations, from pharmacist, health care aide, CT technologist, dental hygienist and rehabilitation counsellor to medical laboratory technologist, pathology assistant, social worker, dietician and midwife, to name only a few, and features the people who work in them and their story.
Chris Lawson, a pharmacist at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, is one of MAHCP’s celebrated 2025 Wall of Fame members.
Lawson works with other health-care specialists in a team to provide wraparound patient care, evaluates medication orders and gives patients the “best chance” of living a good life.
“As a pharmacist at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, I am part of a multi-disciplinary health-care team. A pharmacist evaluates every order given to ensure patients are getting the right medication. This includes whether the drug is the right choice for the problem the patient is having, checking the dose, the schedule, the potential for harmful side-effects, and whether a new medication will have potentially harmful interactions with the medications the patient already has,” said Lawson in a statement he shared with the Express.
“I’m motivated by the obligation I have to my patients. SMHC [Selkirk Mental Health Centre] patients are an especially vulnerable population with tough challenges in their lives. It’s my duty to make sure that their medications are appropriate and safe. I like playing a part in giving them the best chance at living a good life.”
Lawson said he was working in the tech industry when he decided to pursue a career in pharmacy as he wanted to work directly with people to meet their needs. As in any allied-health profession, pharmacy has challenges and requires great attention to detail to ensure patient safety.
“As an allied health profession, pharmacy requires working as a part of a team with physicians, nurses, other allied health staff, and patients to ensure the safe and accurate supply of medications. I was working in the tech industry and found it too alienating, so I pursued a BSc in Pharmacy to try to find a career where I could help people more directly,” said Lawson. “Pharmacy can be stressful because it’s so exacting; you have to be very sure about everything you tell people, and we definitely risk getting overwhelmed by the volume of work. I’m constantly writing lists so that nothing slips through the cracks.”
As a hospital pharmacist, Lawson has a great deal of variety in his job. In addition to overseeing medication, he visits patients on the wards, writes policies and collaborates on committees.
“My day as a hospital pharmacist is very fluid, and I’m mostly responding to issues as they arise, whether answering phone calls or dealing with problems identified while evaluating medication orders. I also attend patient planning meetings, visit wards, and work on projects such as researching drug information, writing policies, doing committee work, helping with technology roll-outs – basically doing whatever needs to be done. No two days are the same!”
The provincial government officially proclaimed Allied Healthcare Professionals Recognition Week in the Commemoration of Days, Weeks and Months Act, setting aside the week of May 14 every year to recognize the contributions of allied health professionals to the health-care system.
Allied health workers deliver frontline quality care and support the health-care system by increasing the accessibility of care, helping patients to heal faster and more completely and promoting mental wellness and healthy lifestyles, states the Act. Their work eases the burden on emergency rooms, shortens wait times and improves patients’ quality of care.
MAHCP has been calling on the provincial government to create an allied health workforce plan to address critical worker shortages in areas such as rural paramedicine, as well as in other allied health specializations, and deal with issues of burnout and staff leaving for better workplace conditions in other provinces.
“Allied health professionals provide essential health care and social services throughout Manitoba, and they continue to show up for work, despite dealing with crippling staffing shortages and unsustainable levels of overtime. Meanwhile, Manitoba isn’t filling the training seats we need to prepare for the future,” said the union in a media statement. “MAHCP has been calling on government to design and execute a full-scale health workforce plan, improve workplace benefits, and enhance culture to ensure allied health careers are desirable.”
Without allied-health workers, patients would not be able to receive critical diagnostic tests like CT scans and MRIs, nor would they be able to access important mental health and addictions services, lab results, ultrasounds, spiritual care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other services, it said.
“MAHCP members are foundational to our province’s health-care system, and an integral part of the solution to the wait times crisis Manitobans face,” said the union.
Recognizing the need to address recruitment and retention deficits, other provinces have already created allied health workforce plans.
The British Columbia government, for instance, released a plan called the Provincial Allied Health Strategic Plan: A roadmap for strengthening allied health services in B.C. It addresses recruitment, practice support, workforce optimization, sustainable and safe work environments and excellence in clinical practice, among other issues. And the Alberta government released an Allied Health Workforce Strategic Plan 2023-2026 a few years ago to grow its allied health workforce, keep its workers engaged, optimize models of care and outline key actions.
The Express reached out to provincial Shared Health for comment on whether it’s working on implementing an allied-health workforce plan and what Manitoba’s focus areas would be.
