New surgical waitlist system critical to keep patients in the know

Opinion

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This article was published 13/03/2025 (190 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A proposed law that would force health authorities to provide patients with up-to-date information about wait times for their life-saving treatment is a good idea.

But a new surgical wait time information system the province recently rolled out may be even more critical in ensuring patients get the surgery they need in a timely fashion.

Last year, Debbie Fewster, 69, died while waiting for heart surgery. She was told by her doctor she needed triple bypass surgery within three weeks.

She never got it. The Niverville woman died at home more than two months later in October. It is the worst outcome in a health-care system that is too often failing patients who require elective or urgent care.

That prompted public policy think-tank SecondStreet.org this week to call on provinces, including Manitoba, to enact legislation that would force health authorities to inform patients when they cannot provide life-saving treatment within the recommended time period. That wouldn’t necessarily shorten wait times, but it could give patients the information they need to find alternative treatment.

Even more important, though, is a new database for surgeons that Shared Health began rolling out in Winnipeg last summer and in rural areas last fall called the “surgical waitlist information management system.”

The new database, which journalists were briefed on last September, forces surgeons who want to book operating room time to submit all their patient information to a central wait time information system. That gives central organizers a wide range of data — including the number of patients waiting for surgery, types of surgery, priority levels, and how long patients have been waiting — to ensure patients with the most urgent needs get priority care.

Under the previous system, surgeons managed their own wait lists — often through outdated paper-based systems — and patients were not always prioritized the way they should be.

In theory, under the new system, patients like Fewster would have been submitted to the central database and perhaps would have been better prioritized.

The new system also provides real-time information for each surgeon that shows available operating room resources. That makes it possible to accurately calculate when patients can expect to get surgery. It should allow patients to contact their surgeon or primary care doctor to get accurate, up-to-date information about when they can expect to have their procedure done.

At least that’s how it was sold to journalists during last year’s briefing. Naturally, it will take time to get the system fully up and running and to work out all the kinks. But it does sound promising.

It won’t solve one of the underlying problems in Manitoba’s health-care system, namely that it’s understaffed and under-resourced. It’s all fine and good for patients to know with greater accuracy when they will get their surgery (or to be told under a proposed law that they cannot get it within the recommended time period).

But if the system can’t keep up with the demand for surgeries, more people like Fewster will die on waiting lists.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara claimed on Wednesday that Manitobans who require urgent or critical care get it when they need it.

That is simply not true. Fewster is proof of that. And there have been other cases in the past where patients needing urgent care did not get it in the recommended time period.

Yes, the most critical cases, including those who need emergency surgery, usually get it right away.

But it’s the people like Fewster, who need life-saving treatment sooner rather than later (but not necessarily on an emergency basis), who have sometimes fallen through the cracks.

Sometimes that’s simply owing to a lack of hospital resources. Budget cuts at regional health authorities in recent years have not helped. Until they are properly resourced, patients will not get the care they need within the recommended period no matter how efficient the new surgical database is.

Still, the new information system will help ensure that higher-priority patients get the surgery they need before lower priority ones.

If the province decides to share some of that data with the public (excluding information about individual patents) — and it should — Manitobans would also have access to better information about overall wait times for surgical procedures.

Right now, the wait time data that is provided through the province’s online dashboard only shows how long patients waited in the past to get their procedures (which is usually several months behind), not how long wait times are today.

It also doesn’t capture all patients, including those who haven’t received their surgeries and who may have been waiting months or years. Nor does it include all procedures. The new one includes all surgeries and is designed to capture all patients on wait lists, including how long they have been waiting.

That’s not a panacea for better care. But it is a critical factor in saving lives and improving quality of life for patients.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca