Health-card backlog now lasting months, not weeks

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This article was published 13/10/2023 (743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A backlog in processing key provincial documents has spread to Manitoba Health cards, with delays for the paperwork critical to accessing Medicare now being measured in months.

According to a notice on the health department’s website, the current backlog dates to June 9 — placing the queue well beyond the processing target of four weeks.

The Free Press spoke with a half-dozen people outside the health department’s Winnipeg public office Thursday. While none wanted their names to appear on the record, all expressed concerns and confusion over the significant delays.

“These issues are always frustrating because health is a No. 1 priority,” said Soni, who asked not to use his full name. “We just want the process to be as quick as possible, because you never know when you may have a health emergency and it’s quite troublesome.”

The man, a newcomer from India, said he applied for his card in August, and was told processing could take up to 12 weeks. When he arrived at 300 Carlton St. seeking an update on his application status, he was greeted by a line of roughly 50 people and expected wait times of several hours.

In an email statement, the province attributed service delays to operational challenges and a surge in demand, brought on by “thousands of requests from people arriving from Ukraine and other parts of the world.”

The Free Press requested an interview. Manitoba Health officials were not available, a spokesperson said.

It is unclear whether the department is suffering from staffing shortages similar to Manitoba Vital Statistics, which was experiencing significant backlogs and a 40 per cent job-vacancy rate in April, the Free Press reported at the time.

The government agency, responsible for issuing birth and marriage certificates, was faced with a stack of more than 5,000 birth certificates — leading processing times to increase from 2.2 weeks to as much as eight months.

The delays were the possible result of a steady annual decline in civil service positions, which decreased to 12,232 from 14,876 under Progressive Conservative leadership. (The PCs have been demoted to Opposition status in the wake of the Oct. 3 election after more than seven years in government.)

“It’s not a good look. We want people to come to our province and we want them to be able to build a life,” said Thomas Linner, director of the Manitoba Health Coalition, a non-profit health-care advocacy group. “Then they are waiting (several) months to even get a health card — that’s not very friendly Manitoba.”

Linner described the processing backlog as a bottleneck, taxing all levels of health care in the province. Without a card, people are unable to connect with family physicians and clinics, often forcing them to access care from emergency departments.

The health-care advocate stressed he has not heard of anybody who has been outright denied care because they don’t have a card — although there are documented cases of people having to pay upfront.

“It’s an absurdity. That is not what people expect from the health-care system anywhere in Canada,” Linner said. “It’s just another indication to the public health-care system across the board, and the lack of capacity there has been for the last seven years.”

Linner was careful to note the fault does not fall to public service employees, saying they are trying their best to operate in a beleaguered system.

People who have had their applications processed will receive a personal health identification number (PHIN), which can then be used for direct billing to Manitoba Health, regardless of whether they have received their physical health card. To be eligible to receive a PHIN, a person must have lived in the province for at least three months, the province said.

Siloam Mission spokesperson Luke Thiessen said social service providers are also feeling the effects of delays.

The non-profit organization, located in central Winnipeg, operates a small volunteer clinic a few days each month, allowing vulnerable people to access care without requiring a PHIN.

The clinic, which is intended as a temporary measure, often becomes a permanent service provider for people who are unable, or unwilling, to navigate the protracted application process, Thiessen said.

“As long as they are waiting for their card, they have to continue to rely on us, which creates unnecessary extra demand on our services,” Thiessen said.

“We are just dealing with the impacts of it the way everybody else is… Whatever the government could do to help clear that backlog would have a significant positive impact on our community.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca