Manitobans continue to face painfully long 26-week average wait times for hip and knee surgeries, with apparently no likelihood of a reduction in sight.Despite a recently announced federal injection of $633 million to improve Manitoba health, it’s uncertain how long it will take to clear a backlog of 2,714 people on this wait list and another 630 waiting for hip surgeries, said Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook.The average wait time — from seeing a surgeon to getting into the operating room — increased from 25 weeks last August to 26 weeks, according to December 2023 figures released by the NDP. That doesn’t take into account wait times to get an appointment with a family doctor to get a referral and into an appointment with a surgeon. No one keeps track of that.The online diagnostic and surgical Wait Time Dashboard was finally updated last Friday, although the data is dated, in response to pressure from the Conservatives.The median wait time for cardiac surgeries was seven days in December compared to 16 days last August and 17 days in December 2022. But overall, wait times for other procedures haven’t changed much since the NDP took power.“And that’s not terribly surprising to me. They’re just getting their feet under them. They haven’t put all their own processes and policies in place just yet,” said Cook.However, Cook said the data shows that Manitobans on hip and knee surgery wait lists are suffering needlessly because, for “ideological reasons” last November, the NDP dissolved the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force without providing an interim plan. Among other things, it provided an out-of-province treatment option.“By cutting the task force without ensuring they had a plan in place, Manitobans will continue to wait in pain for the tests and surgery that they need. We need to see a plan,” said Cook.“I’ve talked to people in my own constituency who are in a great deal of pain and had a discussion with their doctors before the election about the out-of-province option. They were willing to take that and excited to be out of pain. And then they had the rug pulled out from under them.”The Conservatives created the task force in December 2021 to reduce the backlog of tens of thousands of surgeries and diagnostic procedures that increased during COVID-19.The NDP claimed that it prioritized private health care.“The whole sending people out of province for surgery was all intended to be temporary. It was a welcome option for a lot of people who otherwise would have been waiting here for ages,” said Cook.Dr. Peter MacDonald, who was chair of the task force, recently pointed out that it funded 80,000 procedures that would not have been funded otherwise and eliminated 69% of the surgical backlog. “Our position is that they never should have taken this option away until we were back up to full capacity in Manitoba, fully staffed and able to get people the care they needed in a timely way,” said Cook.Meanwhile, the $633 million federal commitment — $434 million over three years to improve the health care system and $199 million earmarked for a five-year plan for home care and long-term care — was announced Thursday at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Premier Wab Kinew.The funding is intended to help hire about 1,000 more health-care workers. The NDP, campaigning on health care with promises to reduce emergency wait times and hire a total of 1,300 more doctors, nurses, paramedics, and health-care workers, ended a seven-year PC reign last October.“It’s time for us to take better care of the people who take care of us,” said Kinew at the press conference. But Cook said that the NDP hasn’t said how it aims to do that.“The question is: what's the actual plan? Enough with the platitudes — the NDP needs to tell Manitobans the details.”“They campaigned almost exclusively on health care. They promised to fix health care, but they haven’t actually said how they’re going to do that.”Last November, Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara embarked on a healthcare “listening tour” travelling to provincial health facilities.“All they’ve done is this listening tour. So, they are going around to different health care facilities across the province and listening to frontline providers,” said Cook.“There’s nothing wrong with that. But you’ve had seven years in opposition to listen.”“I think the biggest challenge facing health care now is staffing and they have put forward no staffing plans. Nothing.”The federal government announced the 10-year, $200- billion “Working Together” health-care agreement during a meeting with the premiers last February. Of the $46.2 billion in new funds committed to the plan prioritizing more staff, primary care, and mental health, $25 billion was allocated for separate agreements with each province and territory.Manitoba is the seventh province to sign the deal with Ottawa.“I'm happy, because health care is our government's top priority... and to have the federal government commit that we are going to walk on this path to ensure that there's more doctors and nurses for you is good news for the province,” said Kinew.
Manitobans continue to face painfully long 26-week average wait times for hip and knee surgeries, with apparently no likelihood of a reduction in sight.Despite a recently announced federal injection of $633 million to improve Manitoba health, it’s uncertain how long it will take to clear a backlog of 2,714 people on this wait list and another 630 waiting for hip surgeries, said Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook.The average wait time — from seeing a surgeon to getting into the operating room — increased from 25 weeks last August to 26 weeks, according to December 2023 figures released by the NDP. That doesn’t take into account wait times to get an appointment with a family doctor to get a referral and into an appointment with a surgeon. No one keeps track of that.The online diagnostic and surgical Wait Time Dashboard was finally updated last Friday, although the data is dated, in response to pressure from the Conservatives.The median wait time for cardiac surgeries was seven days in December compared to 16 days last August and 17 days in December 2022. But overall, wait times for other procedures haven’t changed much since the NDP took power.“And that’s not terribly surprising to me. They’re just getting their feet under them. They haven’t put all their own processes and policies in place just yet,” said Cook.However, Cook said the data shows that Manitobans on hip and knee surgery wait lists are suffering needlessly because, for “ideological reasons” last November, the NDP dissolved the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force without providing an interim plan. Among other things, it provided an out-of-province treatment option.“By cutting the task force without ensuring they had a plan in place, Manitobans will continue to wait in pain for the tests and surgery that they need. We need to see a plan,” said Cook.“I’ve talked to people in my own constituency who are in a great deal of pain and had a discussion with their doctors before the election about the out-of-province option. They were willing to take that and excited to be out of pain. And then they had the rug pulled out from under them.”The Conservatives created the task force in December 2021 to reduce the backlog of tens of thousands of surgeries and diagnostic procedures that increased during COVID-19.The NDP claimed that it prioritized private health care.“The whole sending people out of province for surgery was all intended to be temporary. It was a welcome option for a lot of people who otherwise would have been waiting here for ages,” said Cook.Dr. Peter MacDonald, who was chair of the task force, recently pointed out that it funded 80,000 procedures that would not have been funded otherwise and eliminated 69% of the surgical backlog. “Our position is that they never should have taken this option away until we were back up to full capacity in Manitoba, fully staffed and able to get people the care they needed in a timely way,” said Cook.Meanwhile, the $633 million federal commitment — $434 million over three years to improve the health care system and $199 million earmarked for a five-year plan for home care and long-term care — was announced Thursday at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Premier Wab Kinew.The funding is intended to help hire about 1,000 more health-care workers. The NDP, campaigning on health care with promises to reduce emergency wait times and hire a total of 1,300 more doctors, nurses, paramedics, and health-care workers, ended a seven-year PC reign last October.“It’s time for us to take better care of the people who take care of us,” said Kinew at the press conference. But Cook said that the NDP hasn’t said how it aims to do that.“The question is: what's the actual plan? Enough with the platitudes — the NDP needs to tell Manitobans the details.”“They campaigned almost exclusively on health care. They promised to fix health care, but they haven’t actually said how they’re going to do that.”Last November, Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara embarked on a healthcare “listening tour” travelling to provincial health facilities.“All they’ve done is this listening tour. So, they are going around to different health care facilities across the province and listening to frontline providers,” said Cook.“There’s nothing wrong with that. But you’ve had seven years in opposition to listen.”“I think the biggest challenge facing health care now is staffing and they have put forward no staffing plans. Nothing.”The federal government announced the 10-year, $200- billion “Working Together” health-care agreement during a meeting with the premiers last February. Of the $46.2 billion in new funds committed to the plan prioritizing more staff, primary care, and mental health, $25 billion was allocated for separate agreements with each province and territory.Manitoba is the seventh province to sign the deal with Ottawa.“I'm happy, because health care is our government's top priority... and to have the federal government commit that we are going to walk on this path to ensure that there's more doctors and nurses for you is good news for the province,” said Kinew.