NDP, Liberal leaders promise major investments to revive Manitoba’s sagging health-care system

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This article was published 28/07/2023 (811 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opposition politicians are pitching promises to fix Manitoba’s health-care system as the province heads into election season.

On Friday, the Manitoba Liberals and NDP each announced health-care investments they’d prioritize if elected this October. Both parties promised to increase university program seats for students in medical professions, construct new medical school facilities and attract doctors and nurses to join the provincial workforce.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew promised an $80 million to $150 million expansion of the University of Manitoba’s Bannatyne campus for medical students. The NDP is promising to eventually add 300 nursing seats, saying 300 fewer nurses are working in Winnipeg since the Progressive Conservative government took office in 2016.

Kinew said construction of a “state-of-the-art” building on the campus at Health Sciences Centre would be a top priority if the NDP is elected this fall.

“If we’re elected on Oct. 3, this would be one of our top priorities,” he said. “We hope to get shovels in the ground just as soon as possible.”

The NDP plan involves partnering with the University of Manitoba on a cost-sharing agreement for a new building.

It’s unclear how much capacity the proposed building would add to the health-care workforce. The construction pitch is the first of a number of health system campaign promises expected to come over the next few weeks.

Kinew said his party will also increase the number of nurse practitioners, nurse educators and physicians assistants in addition to increasing nurse and doctor positions.

“It is going to take years to fix the damage Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson have caused to our health-care system,” he said.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont pledged to expand medical school seats, provide pay raises to doctors and nurses and focus on prevention as he unveiled his party’s four-pronged health-care platform, which included a promise to ensure every Manitoban has a family doctor.

Lamont said the Liberals would immediately increase the number of residency spots for medical students and international graduates, and reduce barriers for health-care workers who already live in Manitoba but aren’t working in their field because their qualifications aren’t currently recognized.

The Liberals would build a new lecture hall on the U of M’s Bannatyne campus and set up a Brandon campus of the U of M medical school to focus on rural and northern students, he said.

“This may not solve everything within a first term. But we need to start talking about solutions that are going to last more than our first term,” he said. “The quick fixes and Band-Aids that have been imposed on our system have left it broken. We have to focus on the long term.”

In April, the Liberals said if they formed government, they would pay up to $10,000 per nurse in retention bonuses. Other health-care workers who’ve worked in the public system for at least two years would be eligible for between $5,000 and $10,000.

On Friday, Lamont said the Liberals’ financial top-up plan would cost between $125 million and $175 million.

“Health care is not a cost; it is an investment,” he said.

Both leaders said they planned to release fully costed platforms at a later date.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com