It’s unfair to make some wait — and suffer — longer

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This article was published 10/09/2024 (417 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cheryl Grewar’s two-year wait for spinal neurosurgery is a stark reminder that it was premature for the NDP government to cancel out-of-province surgeries last year before sufficient capacity was built up at home.

The 62-year-old Winnipegger has been living in constant pain and uses a walker so she doesn’t fall. She was originally told the wait time for her surgery would be three to six months. It’s now been two y ears and she still has no surgery date.

“The doctors have done their jobs and got me into the neurosurgery clinic at Health Sciences Centre, but what they are up against is these wait lists,” she said in a recent interview with the Free Press. “They won’t tell you where you are on the wait list, but during a recent call they now call it the ‘enhanced’ wait list.”

The former Progressive Conservative government was funding some out-of-province surgeries, including spinal neurosurgery, prior to their defeat in last year’s provincial election.

It allowed a small number of Manitobans to get surgery in Ontario and in some parts of the U.S., a useful option given Manitoba’s long surgical wait times. The out-of-province procedures were paid for by Manitoba Health.

It was never meant to be a long-term strategy. It was a temporary measure to provide some Manitobans with short-term relief while the province worked on expanding surgical capacity at home.

It made sense for some patients who would otherwise wait months or years for surgery, often in great pain or discomfort.

Which is why it was surprising when the new NDP government cancelled the program last year.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara argued those resources would be better spent hiring more surgeons and front-line surgical staff in Manitoba.

It is a faulty argument. Hiring specialized staff to boost surgical volumes cannot be done overnight. Even once those staff are in place, it will take months, perhaps years, to make a significant dent in Manitoba’s long surgical wait times.

In the meantime, having the option of travelling outside the province for surgery was a reasonable short-term solution for some Manitobans.

The province has recently hired more neurosurgeons and is working towards increasing surgical volumes. But that will take time and is of little benefit to patients like Grewar who are forced to wait in pain. Worse, many don’t know how much longer they have to wait, which only adds to their agony. And that means that one particular group of patients are essentially being asked to suffer for a disproportionate amount of time to cure the ills of a health system. It’s unfair.

There are no silver-bullet solutions to reduce Manitoba’s long wait lists for surgical procedures, including for hip and knee replacements. The former Tory government is partly to blame for today’s long wait lists after cutting hospital budgets and laying off front-line staff.

The Tory’s hospital consolidation plan in Winnipeg, implemented between 2017 and 2019, also contributed to longer wait times. Many front-line staff quit or retired early during the consolidation process rather than agree to take positions they did not believe they were qualified for.

It will likely take years to reverse the effects of the budget cuts and the Tories’ poorly implemented consolidation plan. More resources are needed to expand hospital capacity, not only to boost surgical volumes but also to add staffed beds to medical wards and emergency departments.

Until that happens, more immediate solutions are required so patients like Grewar do not have to suffer.