Health minister defends private ‘investments’ to reduce backlogs

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This article was published 19/04/2023 (872 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s health minister has defended a provincial task force request for private-sector involvement in proposals to fight pandemic backlogs after two physicians went public with their decision to stop giving input to the task force.

“What I want all individuals to know who are providing input is that the task force is there to listen and to consider all the voices, and there are times, believe it or not, where I put forward an idea and they come back with an explanation as to why it might not be the best approach,” Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Wednesday, adding all ideas are “appreciated and valued” even if they aren’t acted upon.

On April 6, two leaders of the Sleep Disorder Centre at Misericordia submitted their resignation to the provincial diagnostic and surgical recovery task force. They cited their concern the task force is too focused on securing a private contract to deal with the backlog in sleep apnea testing rather than approving their funding proposal for the lab. The task force said one of the reasons their proposal was deficient was because it had “only minimal private-sector involvement.”

Gordon said the two sleep specialists were not members of the task force or its steering committee. However, she said their input was valued.

Gordon did not directly address the doctors’ reason for resigning — that privatization was a priority at the expense of patient care — and did not say if she believes their concerns to be unfounded.

“That is not what I hear from the task force. That is not what I hear from (task force chair) Dr. Peter MacDonald who has spent years providing care to Manitobans,” Gordon said.

“They recognize that we have come through a pandemic and there were backlogs, and so we have to balance private and public investments to ensure Manitobans receive the care quickly.”

During a progress update Wednesday, when asked why the task force would require more than minimal private involvement, its executive director David Matear said the group considers all proposals equally.

“We don’t differentiate or provide any advantage to the private sector.”

Task force officials stressed they were trying to eliminate the COVID pandemic backlog for patients as soon as possible, any way they could.

MacDonald said he’s aware “there’s been some dissatisfaction,” over proposals led by physicians and said the task force is working with Doctors Manitoba to smooth out red tape.

“We’re working with the leadership at Doctors Manitoba to make sure it’s as easy as possible, but procurement processes such as (request for service agreements) are intrinsically complicated, so we’re trying to simplify it as much as possible.”

Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Candace Bradshaw said doctors have been concerned about backlogs since the beginning of the pandemic and are encouraged to see the task force’s “major progress” and further plans to tackle significant queues that remain.

“Physicians want to help tackle the backlog, so it is discouraging to hear many have faced red tape and barriers in submitting and advancing their ideas to speed up patient care.

“We have suggested ways to better support doctors in submitting proposals and to improve communication with them, and we look forward to working with provincial officials to put those ideas into action,” Bradshaw stated.

The Manitoba government and the task force are bolstering the public system, Gordon said, but massive backlogs mean the task force has to look beyond its hospitals.

“Where they see that it takes several, several years for those backlogs to be reduced with the investments we are making in our public system, they also look to the private system to help with balancing the needs of Manitobans to receive their care in a timely manner,” she argued.

In addition to concerns about privatization, Dr. Eleni Giannouli and Dr. Nancy Porhownik said they were compelled to quit their roles after an agreement to contract out at-home sleep studies was reached without their input. In addition, they were excluded from meetings and their questions about how to provide follow-up care once the private studies were completed were ignored.

Gordon said she does not want to see clinicians struggle with red tape when they propose solutions, but said there are criteria that all proposals are graded against.

“While we would like to accept all of them, that is not always possible,” she said.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com

danielle.dasilva@winnipegfreepess.com