NDP leader blames Tory health reforms for ER wait times

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This article was published 27/11/2022 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Patients piling up in emergency departments and the exodus of Manitoba physicians can be traced to the Progressive Conservative government’s health system reform, Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew argues, as staffing shortages push wait times to an eight-year high.

“Emergency rooms in Manitoba are in crisis. Wait times are longer than they have ever been,” the NDP leader said last week.

The Fort Rouge MLA pointed to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s latest report, which shows the median wait for care at urban emergency centres was three hours in October.

According to the report, wait times last month were the highest recorded since 2015-16, when the annual peak monthly median wait time was 2.33 hours.

The PCs won government in April 2016, after more than 16 years of NDP leadership. The Tories won a majority again in 2019. The next election must happen on or before Oct. 3, 2023.

Last month, Grace Hospital reported the longest median wait at 3.58 hours. Meanwhile, one in 10 patients waited 11.72 hours or longer at the Health Sciences Centre in October.

“When we’re talking about emergency care — when we’re talking about people waiting to access that — we’re talking about seniors who are sitting in hard plastic chairs, we’re talking about people with young children who are waiting hours on end, we’re talking about our loved ones and our neighbours across Manitoba,” Kinew said.

During question period Nov. 24, the Opposition leader tied the rising wait times to the Tory government’s health system consolidation, which began in 2016.

Three Winnipeg emergency departments were converted to urgent care centres in the process — including Seven Oaks General, Concordia and Victoria General hospitals — and thousands of nurses and health-care staff were shuffled in a consolidation effort that involved deletion notices issued to workers.

“It began when this government started to close emergency rooms, when they laid off all the nurses in those emergency room facilities and forced them in a very undignified way to battle each other to try and get their jobs back,” Kinew said.

“And, of course, in that mix up, in that period in which their own health consultant said that they were mismanaging health care, many nurses and other allied health-care professionals were left behind.”

Premier Heather Stefanson said Manitobans were also facing significant waits — upwards of 30 hours — at emergency departments during when the New Democrats were in government.

“And that wasn’t just after a worldwide pandemic where there’s been significant challenges not just here in Manitoba, but right across our country,” she said.

The same data shows annual peak monthly median wait times appearing to trend downwards to two hours in 2017-18 from 2.33 hours in 2015-16, before rising again to 2.17 hours in 2019-20.

Waits then dropped dramatically at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, before steadily increasing to current record levels.

Manitoba’s shortage of physicians and specialists also worsened under the Tories, the Opposition leader said.

A recent report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information notes Manitoba has 217 doctors per 100,000 residents, which is one of the lowest rates in the country.

Another 405 doctors are needed to reach the Canadian average and the shortage increased by 13 per cent between 2020 and 2021, for an all-time high over five decades, according to analysis by local physicians’ advocacy association Doctors Manitoba.

Kinew attributed the increasing shortage to health-care cuts and asked the premier to explain why the exodus of doctors accelerated since she took office in November 2021. However, the CIHI report only covered two months of Stefanson’s term as premier.

Doctors Manitoba also noted the shortage began to skyrocket in 2013, when the New Democrats led the provincial government.

“Without a big change, the physician shortage is projected to get even worse in the short term, with 43 per cent of physicians planning on retiring, leaving Manitoba or reducing their clinical hours,” Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Candace Bradshaw said.

Stefanson said the province’s $200-million health-care human resources plan, which includes incentives and financial supports for doctors, will make a difference in addressing the shortage.

“We are listening to Manitobans we are taking action and we’re getting things done for Manitobans,” she said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca