New hires, operating space in Selkirk to end ‘long-waiters’ list: health officials By: Chris Kitching Posted: 10:50 AM CST Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 Last Modified: 6:53 PM CST Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 Updates

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The Manitoba government’s plans for 800 hip and knee surgeries in Selkirk will help meet demand and spare patients from becoming “long-waiters,” officials vowed Wednesday.

Dr. Ed Buchel, the provincial surgery specialty lead for Shared Health, said provincewide capacity will rise to nearly 7,800 joints per year, matching the needs of Manitoba’s population.

“Yes, people will wait for surgery. They have to see our physicians, they have to get cleared from medicine,” he told a news conference at Selkirk Regional Health Centre.

“I’ve been asked before, is the wait-list going to go to zero? The wait-list will never go to zero, but we will not be adding people to the long-waiters anymore. We’re delivering the needed health care in our entire province. That’s a fundamental change.”

“A long-waiter” is defined as a patient waiting more than a year for a hip or knee replacement, according to Shared Health.

Buchel said 800 additional surgeries per year at one site is an “astronomical number.”

A provincial spokeswoman said the surgeries will start in January.

The Nov. 19 throne speech revealed the government’s plans to expand surgical capacity in Selkirk. Additional details were released Wednesday.

The province is providing annual funding for staff and operating space, with the first year costing $4 million. Two surgeons were recruited from outside of Manitoba, and two more are on the way, a spokesperson said.

“Each one of these 800 surgeries will mean one less Manitoban waiting in pain,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said.

“We know as a government that cutting wait times… does not have to be complicated. You don’t need to send folks out of province or out of the country to get the essential surgical care that they need and can get, and deserve to get, right here at home.”

Half of all hip and knee replacements in Manitoba between April and September 2023 were completed within a recommended guideline of 26 weeks, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The national average of 62 per cent was based on more than 66,000 procedures across Canada’s provinces.

The combined median wait time for hip and knee surgeries in Manitoba was 31 weeks as of August, according to the province’s online dashboard.

Boundary Trails Health Centre, near Winkler and Morden, had a median wait of 20 weeks, compared with 30 at Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg and 42 at Brandon Regional Health Centre.

Just over 5,800 Manitobans were waiting for a procedure, data showed.

The government said 2,734 procedures were performed between April 1, the start of the 2024-25 fiscal year, and Aug. 31. It said 6,205 were carried out in 2023-24.

Asagwara said more surgeries were performed in the last year than before.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook said median wait times have climbed to the highest levels in at least five years, after a year of NDP government.

The Tories said dashboard data showed a median wait of 36 weeks for knee replacement as of August, which is higher than annual medians since 2019.

Hip replacement was at a median of 28 weeks, which is higher than annual medians over the same period, the PCs said.

“While we welcome any steps to address the NDP’s surgical and diagnostic backlog, their decision to dismantle the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force, cut surgical options for patients and cancel projects to expand surgical capacity in Manitoba will continue to have negative impacts on Manitoba patients,” Cook said in a statement.

Asagwara said the NDP is expanding capacity and getting Manitobans into the queue, after “cuts and damage” by the former PC government from 2016 to 2023 led to years-long waits or patients not knowing how to get on a wait-list.

Buchel said collaboration involving government and people in health care, a new wait-list management system and data-driven decisions will help reduce wait times.

The province said the wait times database prioritizes Manitobans who’ve been waiting the longest.

Elie resident Roseanne Milburn, who waited six years for a double knee replacement, welcomed Wednesday’s announcement.

“I think any amount of (additional surgeries) will help,” Milburn, 61, said from Health Sciences Centre, where she was being treated for an infection that developed after a right knee replacement about two months ago.

“I waited six years for my first (knee), and I’m on my seventh year now waiting for my left one.”

The second operation cannot take place until the infection clears and her right knee is fully healed.

Milburn initially spoke to the Free Press in August, after she and her husband, Dan, decided to put their house up for sale and seek care for her in Alberta.

A Manitoba health-care worker called a couple of days later to give her a surgery date. The Milburns have since taken their house off the market and postponed their move.

Milburn said the long wait left her with “no quality of life,” and negatively affected her mental health. She was forced to retire and give up woodworking and other activities she enjoys.

“I’m sure there are people in even worse situations than I’m in,” she said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

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