View From the Legislature

Over the past year the healthcare system has had to make many adjustments as it responded to the global pandemic. Making adjustments itself is nothing new for those who work in healthcare, but the scale at which changes have happened over the past year is unprecedented and has had a number of negative implications.

In spring of last year, in the early stages of the pandemic, there was a spike in demand for personal protective equipment. Around the globe all healthcare systems struggled to purchase enough supply of things such as approved surgical masks and gloves. Government’s who had for years purchased this equipment from a few trusted suppliers were now searching the globe for new sources of supply. A worldwide shortage led to these supplies being allocated to the highest priority areas. These adjustments were difficult for healthcare professionals in Manitoba and across Canada.

In fall of 2020, when COVID19 cases surged in Manitoba, hospital beds and Intensive Care Units began filling up quickly and remained at very high levels for weeks. During this time, it was necessary to redeploy staff from other units to support COVID19 patients. This included staff from surgical and diagnostic units. As a result, there were well in excess of 10,000 surgeries that were forced to be cancelled. This included surgeries for hip and knee replacements and cataracts to name just a few. More urgent surgeries were impacted as well. In this way, the surge in COVID19 cases in the fall impacted many more thousands of Manitobans than simply those that had the virus as it created a pile-up of surgical procedures that need to be performed.

Over the past several weeks there has been a reduction in hospital and ICU numbers as COVID19 cases have dropped in Manitoba and as vaccination efforts have begun to ramp up. As a result, plans are in place to now begin to deal with the backlog of surgical procedures that were cancelled. Each of these delays in surgeries and delayed diagnostic procedures is not only negatively impacting the patient who is waiting, but also their family.

Last week our government announced that in the 2021-2022 provincial budget an additional $50 million is included to help reduce the wait times for these procedures. While the backlog in surgeries caused by the surge in hospitalization will take some time to address, it is important that continuous progress be made. This impact in delayed surgeries and diagnostic testing due to COVID19 hospitalization is being felt across the country and will be one of the long-term impacts of the pandemic.

Over the next several weeks, updates will be provided on the planning and the progress of reducing this pandemic caused backlog of procedures. It is just one more adjustment that healthcare systems across the country have had to make in these challenging times.