NDP takes first step toward obvious health-care gains

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This article was published 24/11/2023 (704 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the first things a new government does when it gets into office is to find as many low-hanging fruits as it can to make improvements.

There aren’t many, but Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara’s announcement Friday to speed up the discharge of patients to alleviate hospital overcrowding is one.

Most challenges in government are complicated and require months and years of planning to tackle. New governments discover early on there are few quick fixes to the issues they complained about while in opposition.

So when a low-hanging fruit does appear, it gets plucked pretty fast.

For reasons no one in the health-care system has ever adequately explained, patients stay longer on average in Manitoba hospitals than in most other provinces.

One of the reasons is there aren’t enough allied care staff — including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, health-care aides and hospital case co-ordinators — on site to manage the discharge of patients on weekends.

As a result, patients that may be eligible for discharge on a Friday or Saturday have to wait until Monday or even later in the week to be sent home. Consequently, they’re taking up beds two or three days longer than they need to.

That causes unnecessary backup in the system, which is felt all the way down to emergency departments.

The longer patients are in hospital beds, the longer those coming into the hospital (which is usually through the emergency department) have to wait for those beds. The more admitted patients there are piling up in ERs, the less time emergency physicians and nurses have to see new patients.

It’s a vicious cycle.

There are many reasons why some patients are in hospital longer than they should be. In some cases, it’s because they’re waiting for home care or an opening at another facility, such as a personal care home.

In others, it’s because they’re ready for discharge but there aren’t enough support staff on site to provide them with the physiotherapy, occupational therapy or other services they need before they can return home safely.

Asagwara’s announcement is to allocate $2.75 million to immediately hire more of those staff to speed up patient discharge, especially on weekends. The percentage of patients discharged from hospital on weekends falls to almost half of what it is during the week.

It seems like a relatively simple problem to solve, as long as the province can hire the staff quickly. So why wasn’t this done years ago?

No one in the health-care system really wants to answer that question, but it’s fairly obvious. When government cuts acute care hospital budgets — as the previous Tory leadership did over the past several years — something’s got to give. That something is usually staffing, especially in areas where hospitals hope it will cause the least damage.

Cutting back on allied health staff, which occurred under the previous government, is one of the first places underfunded hospitals look for savings when their budgets are reduced.

Will Friday’s announcement solve hospital overcrowding?

Obviously no, but it is a good first step. It’s something that can be done right away to make a difference.

Hospital overcrowding is caused by many different factors, not the least of which is a lack of overall capacity. Hospitals need more doctors and nurses, but that will take time.

In the meantime, hospitals have to do a better job of moving patients through the system and getting them out the door as quickly and safely as possible. It’s something hospital administrators have been trying to do for decades, with various degrees of success.

Speeding up patient discharges by hiring more allied care staff is just one piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important one.

It will not only get patients out the door quicker and free up beds sooner — especially on weekends when staffing levels are low — it will lessen the load early in the week.

The NDP government still has a long way to go to show the public how it plans to “fix” health care, its main promise in the Oct. 3 provincial election. Asagwara said another health-care announcement is planned for next week.

There may be a few more low-hanging fruits in store for the rookie cabinet minister. However, eventually, those will run out and the tough work will begin.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca