Manitoba’s NDP government made a lot of promises to Manitobans when they were elected more than a year and a half ago. And it was in the area of healthcare that the most promises were made to Manitobans, although they didn’t actually present a plan on how they were going to achieve these promises. So perhaps then it should not have been a surprise last week when hundreds of nurses came to the Manitoba Legislature and protested on the steps demanding the NDP explain why these promises have gone unfulfilled.
For Manitobans, this is most clearly seen in the wait times that they are experiencing throughout the healthcare system. Wait times for surgeries such as hip and knee replacements continues to grow and behind those numbers are thousands of Manitobans who are waiting in pain and discomfort. Many of them will remember when prior to the past provincial election, thousands of Manitobans were taking advantage of the option to have these procedures done out of province at places like Fargo, North Dakota. This option, created by the Surgical and Diagnostic Task Force, allowed a choice for those waiting for surgical procedures that was more than just waiting for years in pain. It was intended to remain in place until Manitoba could reduce the surgical wait times to a reasonable level.
When the NDP came to government, one of the first things they did was to disband the Surgical and Diagnostic Task Force and cancel the option for Manitobans on surgical wait lists to go out of province for a number of procedures. What surprised most Manitobans, is that the NDP made this decision without putting in place capacity to replace the out of province program. What that meant is that the wait times did not improve and, in some circumstances, only grew longer. This is the opposite of what the NDP ran on in the last election.
It now also appears that the announcements that the NDP have been making to address this issue have been falling far short of expectations. Last year, the NDP promised Manitobans that they would perform a minimum of 800 hip and knee procedures at the Selkirk hospital in 2025. Like most NDP announcements, this came with a great deal of fanfare and commitments.
Yet, as of May 4th of this year, only 79 hip and knee procedures have occurred at the Selkirk hospital putting the program on track to fall hundreds of procedures short of its goal this year. That is hundreds of Manitobans that continue to wait in pain and people who could have benefitted from the out of province program that the NDP cut without ensuring there was additional local surgical capacity.
When Premier Wab Kinew was asked in the Manitoba Legislature why the surgical program was on track to fall short by hundreds of procedures this year, he responded by stating that he had the best Health Minister in the country. This would have been cold comfort to those waiting for a surgical procedure that would give them greater quality of life and mobility.
Almost two years ago the NDP began telling Manitobans they had great plans to better healthcare. They never actually detailed those plans and now it appears they may not have existed at all. The failure to meet expectations is more than just a political problem for the current provincial government. It is a painful problem that far too many Manitobans are suffering through as they wait for the government to meet the expectations that were set.
