Health card queue eliminated: province

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This article was published 17/05/2024 (513 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AFTER promising to process thousands of backlogged Manitoba health card applications, the provincial government says the queue has been cleared.

In January, there were more than 9,000 applications for health cards stuck in the queue, and the bureaucratic backup was as high as about 24,000 applications in mid-November.

“There are no outstanding health card applications to process in the queue,” a spokesperson from the province said in an email this week.

“The department has opened a hotline and added support staff to help Manitobans work through incomplete applications or ones with errors, and urges anyone who may not have received a card to check for letters, emails or voicemails prompting them to provide a correction.”

The majority of health card applications are being processed in two weeks. The Manitoba Health website lists the oldest application still being processed as being submitted April 2.

While registering for or making changes to a Manitoba health card can be done online or by phone, many still visit Manitoba Health headquarters at 300 Carlton St. for help.

A sign taped to the front door warns that staff have cut down on service at the counter and over the phone to focus on applications.

“To improve the processing time for your applications, counter service and phone service has been reduced temporarily. We appreciate your patience,” the sign reads.

The provincial spokesperson said that sign was outdated and had been “previously posted while an improved applicant screening process was implemented,” and the sign had been taken down after the Free Press reached out.

On Thursday morning, a lineup of around a dozen people snaked outside of the registration and client services room, which was full of people waiting to be seen, registration forms in hand. A security guard in the office said waits were about two hours, but were shorter for people who arrived before the office opened at 8:30 a.m.

Myles Wood was one of the people waiting. He needs to see a doctor to get his eyes checked, but has to replace his health card first. He flew in from his community in Island Lake to get his application done and said he’s hopeful it will only take two weeks to be processed.

Wood was scheduled to receive eye surgery, but the procedure was cancelled. He’s pushing to reschedule the surgery now, but worries if he gets caught up in red tape, he’ll end up giving up on getting it done.

“Probably, I’m going to change my mind if it’s going to be a long time,” he said.

Another applicant finally walked out with her health card number after moving to Winnipeg and applying in February.

The woman, who did not provide her name, said she tried calling to receive an update on her application, but wasn’t able to get through.

Desperate, she called her MLA, who reached out on her behalf and told her to visit the office in-person with her documents.

She came with a loved one, who said the pair had to fight to even get a health card number, much less the card itself.

“When I argued with (client services), he ended up finding her application,” she said. “And then he gave her the number of her health number, so we don’t have the card, but we have the number, so at least she can see a doctor.”

The pair said they were skeptical to hear the queue had been entirely cleared.

Investments in improving the health card application process were announced in advance of the NDP government’s first budget in March. It includes the development of plastic health cards and the introduction of a new application process that would streamline new card requests and changes to existing cards.

Those changes are set to come later this year, the province said.

Manitoba Health issued more than 232,000 health cards, handled over 118,000 requests for address changes and 45,800 requests for status changes in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca