Health care needs action — now

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2023 (682 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Little, if any, progress was made by the former Progressive Conservative government to alleviate overcrowding in hospitals and reduce long wait times during its final year in office.

Despite promises almost a year ago by the previous government to hire 2,000 more health-care staff and make “record investments” in health care, the problems in emergency departments, on medical wards and in operating rooms not only persist, they have worsened.

Health Sciences Centre, Manitoba’s largest hospital, has been so short-staffed recently, 19 patients admitted for care earlier this month were sent back to their home health regions because the facility could not treat them.

Two nurses recounted to the Free Press recently that during an especially busy shift on Oct. 12, the emergency department at HSC was so overcrowded, one critically ill patient who would normally be in an intensive care unit was treated in a hallway. It was “one of the most unsafe shifts in my career,” one nurse said.

Shared Health, the government agency that oversees hospital operations across the province, confirmed overcrowding has worsened in recent weeks. It’s not because of a spike in patient demand — patient volumes have remained at “relatively consistent levels,” according to a Shared Health spokesperson. There are simply not enough doctors, nurses and other front-line professionals to treat the regular flow of patients showing up at hospitals.

Whatever claims the former government made in the months leading up to the Oct. 3 provincial election to improve patient care did not work. The situation is worse today than it’s been in recent memory.

The burden to repair the damage caused by years of underfunding and a poorly executed hospital reform plan now falls on the new NDP government, whose cabinet was sworn into office last week.

The NDP has made big promises to “fix” health care. It has set the bar high. Manitoba’s new Premier Wab Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara promised voters during the provincial election that an NDP government would reduce wait times and alleviate hospital overcrowding by launching an aggressive staff recruitment and retention program and by opening more community clinics.

They also pledged to provide hospitals and other front-line services with more sustainable funding, while reducing the level of bureaucracy in the system.

Those political promises and their outcomes will now be put to the test.

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Manitoba’s greatest challenge in health care is the same as it is for other provinces: how to recruit and retain staff amid a national shortage of front-line professionals.

Money alone will not solve the problem. The NDP will have to use new and creative strategies to attract and keep staff. Regional health authorities must improve working conditions and change workplace cultures to better include front-line personnel in decision making. Medical practitioners must feel valued by their employers. Those areas have been lacking in recent years.

Kinew and Asagwara reiterated their commitment to front-line staff during a news conference Tuesday. Those words, however, will not be enough. Action is now needed.

No one is expecting miracles overnight from the new government. The problems in health care are complicated and not easily solved. Still, the NDP has said it has the solutions to improve patient care and would do so if given the chance. It will have a short honeymoon period to put those ideas and policies into action. After that, the public will expect tangible and measurable results.

It is now time for the new government to put its money where its mouth is.