NDP presses health minister on lacking backlog task force update

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This article was published 06/03/2022 (1025 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Opposition NDP has accused Health Minister Audrey Gordon of deliberately misleading the house.

On March 3, Gordon told the Manitoba legislature the province’s surgical and diagnostic backlog task force would be providing an update the following day.

“There was no update,” said NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara, who raised the issue as a matter of privilege in the house Monday.

There were no government officials announcing detailed task force plans and responding to media questions March 4. Instead, a summary of the task force’s progress since its last update Jan. 19 was posted on a provincial government website in the late afternoon. No new initiatives were announced.

Asagwara said Gordon broke the rules of the house, by telling members during question period March 3 a task force update was planned for the next day, then didn’t deliver one.

The NDP MLA asked the health minister to apologize to the house, and that the “failure of the government to set a deadline to clear the backlog be moved to a committee for immediate consideration.”

Speaker Myrna Driedger said she would take the matter under advisement.

On March 4, a spokesman for Gordon said the PC government had to reconsider what information it could announce, because of Election Financing Act rules governing communication during the lead-up to the Fort Whyte byelection.

The legislation limits government advertising and funding announcements during an election period.

Gordon did, however, tell the house Monday that Manitobans have started getting spinal surgeries at a Sanford Health facility in Fargo, N.D.

In a statement later in the day, the health minister said an agreement with Sanford provides for a pilot phase, where a small number of Manitoba patients will receive care. “This process will enable both organizations to get the patient referrals and transitions in place so that this can be a safe and effective care experience,” the statement said.

The diagnostic and surgical recovery task force will provide updates on patient volumes and costs as part of future briefings, it said.

During question period, NDP Leader Wab Kinew pressed Premier Heather Stefanson to announce a date for when the surgical and diagnostic backlog in Manitoba would be cleared.

Stefanson wouldn’t commit to a date. She said her government knows the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been very hard for residents, but the situation is not unique to Manitoba.

She thanked health-care providers “for the incredible work they do.”

Neither Stefanson nor Gordon spoke to reporters after question period.

Kinew said in a scrum Manitobans waiting for surgeries and procedures deserve to know what the backlog task force is doing.

“I think what we saw last Friday was a sad example of Manitoba’s government using this blackout as an excuse to cover up for its own failings when it comes to health care,” the NDP leader said.

Government house leader Kelvin Goertzen told reporters abiding by election blackout rules is a balancing act.

“The challenge between trying to make sure an election is fair and seen to be fair and that government isn’t using the power of government to tip the scales of an election one way or another — and your desire and the public’s desire for information — that’s never going to land in a perfect place,” said Goertzen, who is also the justice minister.

“There was a feeling there was new programming put in place that might run afoul of this.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca