Manitobans want to see report guiding province’s health-care reforms: poll

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/08/2017 (3018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new poll suggesting an overwhelming majority of Manitobans want the government to release the KPMG report on health care sustainability doesn’t seem to be enough to convince the health minister to do it.

Eighty-six per cent of people think it’s important the government release the report, which it’s using in part to guide drastic changes to health care delivery across the province, according to a new Probe Research/Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union survey.

Premier Brian Pallister’s government paid KPMG $750,000 for the health sustainability report, initially promising to release it publicly, but later refusing to release it.

Since then, the rationale for keeping the report secret has varied from a claim the government doesn’t own the information it paid for, to the argument that it all constitutes advice to cabinet, which is exempt from freedom of information legislation.

MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky said the union, which routinely conducts surveys, was motivated to conduct this particular one after she spent the summer visiting front-line workers in personal care homes and hospitals across Manitoba.

“Everywhere I go I’m hearing the same thing,” Gawronsky said, “Manitobans are concerned about what’s happening and they’re concerned about health care, about jobs being cut, services being cut, programs being cut.”

It’s “chaos,” she said, and the survey results reflect that: 71 per cent of people believe the government is pushing too far, too fast and that health care reform will ultimately hurt — not help — patient care. They want the KPMG report, Gawronsky said, because they want to know what the plan is.

“What’s in the report? Are they choosing bits and pieces?” She said. “Let Manitobans take a look at it. It’s our report, we’re the taxpayers that paid for it to be done; let’s see what it says and let us make a decision.”

A spokeswoman for health minister Kelvin Goertzen skipped over a question seeking comment from the minister about Manitobans support for the KMPG report’s release, reiterating earlier comments that “we would be communicating publicly about the vast majority of the (KPMG) recommendations as they were implemented and that has been the case.”

Two recommendations made public

To date, only two recommendations have been made public and even then, it’s unclear what exactly KPMG recommended and how that compares with what the government is actually doing.

The first concerns the creation of Shared Health Services, a new provincial health organization announced by Goertzen in June. At the time, he said the creation was based on a report by Dr. David Peachey, which was commissioned by the previous government to find solutions to old problems in Manitoba’s health system, and the KPMG review. He did not elaborate.

“It’s our report, we’re the taxpayers that paid for it to be done; let’s see what it says and let us make a decision.”

The second relates to an announcement about nurse staffing changes earlier this month. At the announcement, there was brief mention of changes to staff ratios in light of KPMG assessments revealing “that staffing ratios at Winnipeg health care facilities are higher than those at facilities in other Canadian jurisdictions.” However, no specifics were provided.

That’s cause for concern, said NDP health critic Matt Wiebe.

“The fact that they can’t release it or they won’t release it shows that there’s a gap between what the report may say and what they’re doing,” he said. “They should release it and let Manitobans make their own judgment.”

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca