Province urged to halt private sleep studies

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This article was published 30/05/2023 (879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provincial government has been asked to stop pursuing private contracts for sleep disorder studies.

The Manitoba Health Coalition, the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals and sleep specialist Dr. Nancy Porhownik has called for an “immediate moratorium” on private sleep-study contracts, greater public accountability and oversight of existing agreements, and regulatory limits to protect patients from out-of-pocket costs and conflicts of interest in the private sleep-study market.

They said Tuesday the polysomnography technician workforce is under-staffed and spends too much time trying to fix sleep-assessment equipment that needs to be replaced.

Less expensive sleep-disorder assessments, they said, could be provided within the public system if the sleep disorder lab at Misericordia Health Centre had more funding for additional staff and updated equipment.

Cerebra, a private company that conducted sleep studies to Manitoba Health, said patients had no out-of-pocket costs and there was no upselling.

Cerebra’s “engagement with the province has been to help address the over two-year wait list due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cerebra supports investment in the public sleep lab in order to build capacity in handling on-going patient referrals,” Cerebra president Patrick Crampton stated.

In April, Porhownik, co-section head of respirology in the University of Manitoba department of medicine, resigned along with Sleep Disorder Centre director Dr. Eleni Giannouli from their clinical advisory roles with the provincial surgical and diagnostic recovery task force.

They said their funding proposal for the lab was shelved because the task force focused instead on securing an agreement with a local company, Cerebra, to provide at-home sleep tests. More than a month later, their proposal is still “under review” and the provincial government has renewed its solicitation for private tests. On May 30, bidding closed on the latest round of the province’s quarterly requests for supply arrangements.

The NDP accused the Progressive Conservative government of putting “politics ahead of patients” by renewing its request for bids while the physicians’ sleep lab proposal languishes.

“We think the premier should be listening to doctors who work at the bedside and not searching for profits for private companies,” Kinew said during question period on Monday.

Premier Heather Stefanson responded by saying the task force considers proposals from the public and private sector to “ensure that we are not putting ideology first, that we are putting patient care first.”

A spokesperson for the task force said an update will be provided soon on the sleep disorder lab’s proposal.

— With files from Danielle Da Silva

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca