Kinew puts health authorities under microscope; wants patients, front-line workers at centre of system

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This article was published 27/12/2023 (660 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A plan is in the works to overhaul the province’s health authorities with the goal of putting the patient experience at the centre.

Premier Wab Kinew said the NDP government is reviewing the operations of the regional health authorities, which he described as one of the most important items on his agenda.

“There is a real need to improve the culture in health care, and the current status quo with the service-delivery organizations is just not something that is supportive of us improving things on the front lines,” Kinew told the Free Press.

“We are spending more money every single year in health care and we’re getting worse results. Something has to change.”

The Manitoba government has five regional health authorities responsible for services, including hospitals, long-term care facilities and community and home-care programs.

“We are spending more money every single year in health care and we’re getting worse results. Something has to change.”–Wab Kinew

Shared Health was established in 2018 as a provincial authority as part of the former Progressive Conservative government’s health system transformation.

Over the past five years, regional administrative functions such as procurement, labour relations, capital planning and information and technology services were consolidated under Shared Health, as part of a larger reorganization of the health system.

Shared Health is also responsible for the Health Sciences Centre and diagnostic, emergency-response and specialized clinical services, including mental-health and addictions programming.

Kinew said the purpose of the planning exercise is to improve accountability at health authorities. It will include a close look at how the organizations “go about their business,” he said.

The premier likened the work to “reverse-engineering” the health system, beginning with patients and front-line workers at the centre, and then designing the health bureaucracy around their experiences.

“It means being responsive to the needs of the people, and right now in the work that we see coming from the service-delivery organizations, I don’t know that there is that connection to what is needed on the front lines and what’s needed from the patients,” Kinew said.

During the election campaign, the NDP promised to slash the bureaucracy at Shared Health and pledged to change the culture of health care in a bid to retain workers and recruit additional staff for the province’s beleaguered hospitals.

The campaign pledge came with a warning to health bureaucrats that if they’re not successful at improving conditions, they will be replaced.

The premier did not delve into the specifics of his vision for health care administration, but reiterated that a new plan is needed.

It will complement the NDP plan to staff up hospitals as it looks towards opening three new emergency departments in Winnipeg, he said, and political oversight will be key.

“Would like to take steps towards that in 2024,” Kinew said.

“Just about everybody in the health-care system can point to examples of ways in which the current setup is not working for them, is not providing the direction nor the support that they think they should receive.”–Thomas Linner 

Manitoba Health Coalition provincial director Thomas Linner said talk of a new plan for health authorities is bound to stir mixed feelings among health-care workers after experiencing past reorganization efforts.

“Just about everybody in the health-care system can point to examples of ways in which the current setup is not working for them, is not providing the direction nor the support that they think they should receive,” Linner said.

“There’s going to be trepidation — I don’t think you’re ever going to be hearing anybody jumping up for joy that there’s going to be an emphasis placed on this kind of review, especially when they’re overwhelmed as they are, but I think it can be understood.”

The Manitoba Health Coalition is a non-profit organization that advocates for expanded universal, public health care.

Its board includes representatives from the Manitoba Nurses Union, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals and other health unions. Linner is the spouse of NDP cabinet minister Renee Cable.

Any changes planned for the health authorities should not be politically charged, Linner said.

“What we would want is for any review process to be tempered, to be driven by expert and front-line experience, and take as much of the politics out of it as possible, so that this is actually focused on what works best for front-line delivery within the public health-care system,” he said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca