Health care delayed, health care denied

Manitobans have grown accustomed to hearing about long wait times in emergency rooms, delayed diagnostic tests and months-long backlogs for surgery. They are often framed as inconveniences — frustrating, yes, but often manageable.

The province’s latest critical-incident report should put an end to that illusion.

Delays in care are not merely an inconvenience. They can be fatal.

Between April 1 and Sept. 30, 2025, 16 deaths and 43 major injuries in Manitoba’s health-care system were deemed critical incidents requiring investigation. Among those deaths were five patients who experienced delays in accessing care, delays in treatment or delays in the system’s response to their deteriorating condition.

Those are not abstract figures. They are people who might reasonably have expected timely care in a publicly funded system who instead encountered gaps — gaps that proved catastrophic.

As Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson observed, these are not random human errors. They are “system signals.”

And the system is signalling distress.

“What stands out in these reports is not just the number of critical incidents, it’s the pattern,” said Jackson. “Over and over again, we see the same language.”

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara is right to say these incidents represent real people and that each one is taken seriously. The question is whether the system is structured in a way that can prevent them from happening in the first place.

Right now, there is ample reason to doubt that.

Front-line voices continue to point to the same underlying problem: capacity. Not in the abstract, but at the bedside, in emergency departments, in diagnostic units and in rural and northern communities where shortages are often most acute.

Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, has flagged shortages of respiratory therapists in Winnipeg’s emergency rooms and paramedics in rural Manitoba. These are not minor staffing gaps. They are critical roles in moments when minutes matter.

When those roles go unfilled, delays are inevitable. And when delays occur in acute care, outcomes can deteriorate quickly.

The nurses union has made a similar point. Patient safety, it argues, is not primarily about post-incident reviews or well-crafted policies. It is about whether there are enough trained professionals, with the right supports, available in real time to recognize problems early and act quickly.

That is where the system is falling short.

Government has acknowledged that improving staffing levels, patient flow and wait times is essential. It has pointed to ongoing efforts and the complexity of the challenge. All of that is true.

But complexity cannot become an excuse for complacency.

Manitobans have been hearing about recruitment drives, new funding announcements and system improvements for years. Yet emergency room wait times remain stubbornly high. Diagnostic delays persist. Surgical backlogs continue to stretch on.

Now, the consequences of those delays are being laid bare in stark terms.

This should be a wake-up call, not only for government, but for anyone inclined to downplay the seriousness of wait times as mere inconveniences, rather than what can be a matter of life and death.

Critical-incident reports serve an important purpose. They shine a light on failures and identify ways to prevent them from recurring. But their value depends on what happens next.

If the same language continues to appear report after report — missed opportunities, delayed responses, gaps in care — then the system is not learning fast enough, or at all.

And patients are paying the price.

There is no single fix for a health-care system under strain. But there should be a clear priority: reducing the delays that are now demonstrably costing lives.