Health care needs long-term planning
If there’s been a throughline in the past 30 years of Manitoba politics — apart from the fact the electorate has bounced between NDP and Progressive Conservative governments — it’s […]
For the past three decades, Manitoba's political landscape has been dominated by the ever-changing dynamics between the NDP and Progressive Conservative parties. A constant theme in this political saga has been the state of provincial health care, which has consistently featured prominently in the headlines. A notable example of this is the "hallway medicine" phrase used by Gary Doer's New Democrats during their 1999 election campaign, a sentiment that unfortunately still rings true today, especially in Winnipeg's emergency rooms.
The root cause of these ER bottlenecks, as pointed out by Dr. Alecs Chochinov, former director of emergency medicine at St. Boniface Hospital, stems from what he calls an "access block." In essence, this means the need for more personal care homes and home-care services to free up acute-care hospital beds and expedite patient flow through emergency rooms.
To tackle this issue and direct long-term investment, Shared Health, Manitoba's agency responsible for health planning, service delivery, and operational support, exists. This agency, under the purview of five regional health agencies, CancerCare Manitoba, the Health Sciences Centre, and other related entities, was established by Brian Pallister's PC government in 2018. However, Shared Health has struggled to fully utilize its mandate, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
The political landscape shifted in October 2023 with the NDP's Wab Kinew coming to power, promising to "fix health care" for Manitobans. The new administration promptly hired Deloitte and MNP to review Shared Health, leading to the dismissal of its CEO and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's head. Despite this, Shared Health remains under interim leadership, and the NDP government recognizes the value of centralized health planning.
But for Shared Health to truly fulfill its mandate and address issues like access block, it needs long-term structural and systemic changes. This requires legislating long-term capital funding commitments, enabling the agency to plan and execute infrastructure investments.
Written by urgent.news from Winnipeg Free Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
