Slow first steps keep Manitoba behind health-care curve By: Dan Lett Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Nov. 28, 2022

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/11/2022 (661 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Welcome to Manitoba, land of “positive first steps.”

No matter the problem, its Progressive Conservative government has a positive first step to offer. Climate change, homelessness, mental health, diagnostic and surgical wait times. No matter the crisis, the Tories have shown a talent for conjuring a full-range of positive outcomes — but only a modicum of details on how they’re going to get there.

Take Health Minister Audrey Gordon’s recent commitment to a $200-million “human resource action plan” to recruit 2,000 front-line staff to the province’s hospitals and clinics. The early November announcement was timely, as Manitoba continues to limp along with huge wait lists for elective surgeries, growing wait times for treatment at hospital ERs, and the lowest per-capita family physician ratio in Canada.

However, save for tiny nuggets of actual ideas, the announcement was yet another triumph of intention over action. There is no timeline for hitting the 2,000-person target, and largely no details on how the money will be spent.

To date, Doctors Manitoba and the Manitoba Nurses Union, the two toughest audiences for such announcements, have been mildly positive. However, both have cautioned, at some point, there need to be results.

There haven’t been many.

Three key hurdles stand in the way of the Stefanson government convincing its critics, and the general public, it can get the job done.

First, Manitoba is woefully behind the curve when it comes to recruitment and retention incentives. Most other provinces already offer salary increases, support for clinic expenses, along with tuition rebates and student loan forgiveness to medical school graduates. Any efforts to keep up with the other provinces will need to be bold.

The second hurdle is the PC government’s chronic inability to execute plans to get beyond its statement of intentions to actual concrete actions.

No one knows for sure why this government moves at a glacial pace in addressing the staffing crisis in health care. Perhaps it’s because the first order of business in managing health-care services after the Tories came to power in 2016 was to cut funding to the regional health authorities and demand they eliminate middle-management jobs.

Say what you will about the scourge of bloated bureaucracies, but a government that costs less to operate but which cannot get anything done is not much value to taxpayers.

Say what you will about the scourge of bloated bureaucracies, but a government that costs less to operate but which cannot get anything done is not much value to taxpayers.

Third, this is a government that simply cannot recognize the good ideas that don’t cost any money.

That last hurdle may seem counter-intuitive for a government that claims to be dedicated to returning value to Manitobans for taxpayer investments in services. (It’s a miracle former premier Brian Pallister didn’t suffer repetitive strain injury from patting himself on the back for efforts to review expenditures in value-for-money audits and reduce government red tape.)

However, when it comes to creating that value for money, this government has struggled. That’s tragic because, while increased pay will always be important, the only way Manitoba is going to become a province of choice for doctors and nurses will be if offer the best overall working conditions.

Doctors Manitoba has made dozens of recommendations, such as improved mentorship support for new physicians, improved communication from regional health authorities and Shared Health to keep physicians up to date on strategic changes, and a streamlining of paperwork demands. Most of those ideas have been, to date, ignored.

However, when it comes to creating that value for money, this government has struggled. That’s tragic because, while increased pay will always be important, the only way Manitoba is going to become a province of choice for doctors and nurses will be if offer the best overall working conditions.

Doctors Manitoba spokesman Keir Johnson said the organization has asked for a centralized system to help family physicians consult with specialists on individual cases.

Currently, Manitoba family doctors who have a complex case need to phone around on their own to find a specialist for a consultation. Then, if it’s decided the patient requires specialist treatment, the physician needs to call around to find a facility that will admit them.

In Saskatchewan, Johnson said, physicians call a central government referral system that connects family physicians with specialists and, if necessary, arrange a patient transfer. “It’s a simple idea, but one that would really improve the lives of physicians,” he said.

The same equation exists with nurses.

Hundreds have left the public system to work for private agencies, where they get paid more, face no demands for forced overtime and have more control over work-life balance. Increased salary alone isn’t going to lure those nurses back.

Manitoba needs to offer the best possible working conditions with the widest and most innovative array of supports, both financial (salary, clinic costs) and non-financial (mentoring, improved referral systems).

Without non-monetary improvements there is very little chance the PC government will hit its recruitment targets. And that will leave Manitoba, once again, stuck in a positive first step.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Dan Lett
Columnist

Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year out of journalism school with a lifelong dream to be a newspaper reporter.

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