Surgical wait times going in the wrong direction under NDP

Opinion

The Kinew government’s battle to cut surgical wait times is not going well.

In the first quarter of 2025, wait times for hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery have all gone up compared to 2024 and 2023, according to the province’s latest wait-time data.

That’s bad news for a government that promised voters during the 2023 provincial election that it would slash wait times for surgical procedures.

The median wait time for hip replacement surgery across the province was 25 weeks in the first three months of 2025. That’s up from 22 weeks in 2024 and 21 weeks in 2023. Not only has the NDP government failed to reduce wait times for hip surgery, they are getting longer.

The median wait time is the point at which half of patients wait longer for surgery and half get their procedures done sooner. It does not include the time it takes for patients to see a specialist, which can take months.

That means many patients are waiting far longer than 25 weeks for hip surgery, especially when the wait to see a specialist is included. The whole process can take two years or more.

Still, the median wait time is an accurate way to measure whether wait times are going up or down.

Wait times for knee replacement surgery also grew in the first quarter of 2025 to 29 weeks.

That’s up from 27 weeks the year before and 26 weeks in 2023. It’s going in the wrong direction.

Even wait times for cataract surgery, which improved in recent years, is growing again. The median wait time jumped to 12 weeks so far in 2025 from nine weeks in 2024.

As an aside, the posted wait times for cataract surgery are misleading. The province combines the median wait time for the first eye (which is usually the longest wait) with the second, which typically takes only a few days or less, and calculates the average of both.

In reality, people are waiting far longer than the posted 12 weeks. Either way, the data shows overall wait times for cataract surgery are also going in the wrong direction.

When it comes to orthopedic surgeries, it’s not that hospitals are performing fewer procedures. They’re actually doing more than ever before. The problem is they’re not keeping pace with the growing demands of an aging population.

Manitoba completed a monthly average of 235 hip replacement surgeries from January to March this year. That means the province is on track to do 2,816 procedures in 2025, if that trend holds. That would eclipse last year’s 2,516 hip surgeries and the 2,411 completed in 2023.

It’s the same with knee surgeries. The province is on track to complete 4,188 knee replacement surgeries this year, up from 3,908 last year and 3,758 in 2023.

But it hasn’t been enough to bring down wait times.

The fact that wait times for both have been growing since the NDP took office in the fall of 2023 is problematic. It’s not what the party promised voters on the campaign trail.

Clearly, more resources are needed for orthopedic and cataract surgeries, and for other surgical procedures as well.

Another problem is the province posts wait times only for a limited category of surgeries, namely hip and knee replacements, cataract and cardiac surgery.

Manitoba introduced a new surgical database last year that forces surgeons to share their wait lists with the province for all categories of surgery. Previously, surgeons managed their own individual wait lists.

One of the goals of the new system is to prioritize people who have been waiting the longest.

That’s one of the stated reasons why this year’s posted wait times are growing. Under the previous system, many patients with prolonged waits were not included in the data. Now they are and it’s pushing up the posted wait times on the province’s online dashboard.

Unfortunately, the province still hasn’t made the new data public. Health officials haven’t even said whether they will. They should, especially since the new database includes all surgeries, not just the four categories on the current online dashboard.

Either way, it’s clear hospitals and surgeons need more resources to keep up with growing demand. Manitobans are waiting far too long for surgeries and it’s time for the province to be open and transparent about posting wait times for all surgical categories.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara has a responsibility to explain to Manitobans why wait times are growing. And an obligation to start releasing the more comprehensive data from the new surgical database.

The data exists. It’s time to share it.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca