October 16, 2026, WINNIPEG, MB – After repeated requests for staffing support went unresolved, nurses at Seven Oaks General Hospital say unmanageable patient assignments and increasingly complex care needs are putting safe patient care at risk.

In response, nurses at Seven Oaks General Hospital have enacted grey listing, a formal labour action that signals serious unresolved workplace and patient care concerns.

“Our nurses cannot wait, and our patients cannot wait,” said Darlene Jackson, President of MNU. “Nurses are describing shifts where they simply do not have enough staff to provide the care patients need. They have raised these concerns repeatedly. They’re done with delays. They need action now.”

Nurses describe caring for patients with increasingly complex needs, including dialysis and treatment for multiple health conditions. They also report that medical patients are being admitted to geriatric rehabilitation units without corresponding adjustments to nurse staffing, while patient numbers exceed unit capacity.

“Leaving someone without the help they need to stay clean, comfortable and safe is unacceptable,” said Jackson. “A patient’s dignity cannot depend on whether there is money left in a staffing budget.”

MNU acknowledges that security cameras have been repaired and security staffing has improved. However, nurses say these measures do not address ongoing workload concerns, and the additional overnight triage nurse position is limited to a one-year term with no guarantee it will continue.

“Working cameras and proper security staffing should have been in place all along. It should not have taken the threat of grey listing to secure them,” said Jackson. “Those improvements matter, but they do not resolve the unsafe workloads nurses continue to face.”

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MEDIA CONTACT

Brandi Johnson
Director of Communications, MNU
Phone: 204-226-9803

Email: bjohnson@manitobanurses.ca