Task force attaches strings to $1.8-M sleep lab plan

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/06/2023 (851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s COVID-19 pandemic backlog task force has agreed to spend $1.8 million to upgrade equipment and hire more support staff at the province’s only accredited sleep lab.

However, leading physicians at the Misericordia Sleep Disorder Centre say they weren’t informed about the proposed funding agreement until after the task force held a news conference announcing the move Wednesday afternoon.

Dr. Peter MacDonald, chairman of the steering committee for the provincial diagnostic and surgical recovery task force, said it is prepared to fund a $1.8-million, two-year agreement that would add new equipment and hire physicians’ assistants, respiratory therapists and stenographers to allow the lab to assess an additional 200 patients per month.

As a condition on the agreement, the Winnipeg lab will have to hand over its full patient wait list to the province.

“Undiagnosed sleep disorders can increase the risk of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and heart disease. We also know that undiagnosed sleep disorders are cause for delays for surgery, so it’s important to get these people diagnosed and treated,” MacDonald said.

“Currently, the task force is unable to accurately define the current wait list for sleep diagnosis, as that information is being held exclusively through the Sleep Disorder Centre. However, it is expected that thousands of Manitobans are waiting for this testing,” he said.

“Therefore, to meet the conditions of this agreement, the SDC is required to provide the task force, the Manitoba government access to the patient wait list — which we think is a fair request — to improve co-ordination of patients through central intake.”

The agreement would include funds to hire a private vendor to complete an additional 120 sleep studies per year, MacDonald added. A “modest amount” of new staff would be hired for the centre under this agreement.

The task force is continuing to work with private sleep study company Cerebra, he said.

The announcement comes after sleep specialists Dr. Eleni Giannouli and Dr. Nancy Porhownik publicly called attention to their languishing funding proposal for the Misericordia hub. They resigned from clinical advisory roles on the task force in April, saying it was too focused on securing private contracts instead of investing in the existing system.

Giannouli and Porhownik put forward their proposal with approval from the Sleep Disorder Centre and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

A provincial government spokesperson for the task force stated the Sleep Disorder Centre had been informed the proposal was fully granted, with the wait list condition. But the sleep specialists said they weren’t told.

Giannouli, director of the Sleep Disorder Centre, and Porhownik, co-section head of respirology in the University of Manitoba’s department of medicine, said Wednesday they hadn’t been informed about the proposed agreement and were unclear what it entails.

“That’s really unprecedented, that we wouldn’t be included in discussions before a press release like this,” Porhownik said.

“That’s really unprecedented, that we wouldn’t be included in discussions before a press release like this.”–Dr. Nancy Porhownik

“It’s an example of silos in decision making,” Giannouli added. “It doesn’t cultivate trust.”

They both raised concerns about the lack of public details provided on the task force’s ongoing work with Cerebra, worrying it could duplicate sleep testing and costs. The province didn’t say how much money will spend on the latest agreement, but did say it “offers patients comprehensive, convenient and timely access to at home testing, diagnosis, treatment planning and care. Cerebra Medical will provide up to 10,000 sleep studies between April 2023 and March 2025.”

Meantime, MacDonald said the task force will be expanding “an interim partnership agreement” with Cerebra for sleep testing and treatment, and all patients who need a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine will qualify for one through the provincial program, regardless of whether they’re assessed by Cerebra or the lab at Misericordia.

The task force has been trying to acquire the sleep lab’s patient wait list information since it began working with Cerebra.

MacDonald said the task force can’t plan or triage patients without it.

Giannouli and Porhownik said they initially refused to provide patient information because they were concerned about privacy breaches and wanted more information about the agreement with Cerebra.

The private company needed those names to contact wait-listed patients and do its work, officials said. As a workaround, the task force set up an online portal for patients and physicians to provide direct referrals.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com