NDP failing to fix health care

Opinion

The Brandon Regional Health Centre was scheduled to go without a surgeon between 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. yesterday. For an entire 24-hour period, the closest emergency department with a surgeon would be in Dauphin or Winnipeg.

The public only learned of the problem when the issue was raised during question period in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly on Thursday by both Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen and Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook.

“Patients who need surgery will either be forced to wait up to 24 hours, travel to Dauphin if Dauphin has capacity, or travel to Winnipeg,” Cook said. She asked “How could the minister have failed to see this coming, and how could they have failed to take action to prevent it?”

It was a valid question, but the response fell far short of acceptable. Instead of explaining why the staffing shortage occurred and assuring Manitobans that it would not happen again, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara attempted to blame the previous PC government for the problem.

The minister’s non-answer and deflection was cold comfort to Brandonites and other Westman residents, whose health was jeopardized by the absence of a general surgeon.

Sadly, this is not the first time staffing shortages have impacted patient care at the Brandon Regional Health Centre this year, nor is it the first time Asagwara has attempted to blame the previous Tory government for the failings of the current NDP government.

On New Year’s Day of this year, Prairie Mountain Health issued a media alert that warned that a “temporary disruption” was expected to occur at the hospital from 8 a.m. on Jan. 2 to until 8 a.m. the next day due to the “unexpected absence” of a medical provider. Expectant mothers and anyone seeking maternity services during that 24-hour period were advised to access care at another health-care centre or facility during that time.

The following week, nursing staff working the BRHC’s hemodialysis unit warned that staffing shortages in that department put the health of patients at risk. Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson told the Sun at the time that “We are deeply concerned about the impact this has on patient care and the well-being of our team.”

In mid-August, it was reported that Prairie Mountain Health had sent an “urgent” email to its physicians, indicating that there were 10 vacant shifts between Aug. 13 and Aug. 17 for in the BRHC’s emergency department.

Each of those staffing shortages, along with the surgical vacancy disclosed by Balcaen and Cook this week, had the potential to compromise the quality of patient care at the BRHC — and those are only the incidents the public was informed of via media reports. Whether there have been other, undisclosed shortages is unclear.

Despite the seriousness of the shortages, and the fact that they continue to occur, Asagwara keeps blaming the previous government for the problem.

The minister is apparently unaware, or wilfully blind, to the fact that the previous PC government inherited a broken health-care system from the Selinger NDP government in 2016 — a system plagued by staff shortages that ranked worst or second-worst in the country in several categories, including ER, surgical and diagnostic wait times.

In August, Asagwara announced that the province has seen an increase of 201 net new physicians practising in the province since the NDP formed government in 2023, and that an additional 12 have accepted offers and will begin their practices in the coming months.

It was also reported last month that, according to the latest figures from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, the province added a net new 164 doctors as of April 30 — the largest annual increase since at least 2008. The same report revealed, however, that two-thirds of the new doctors are practising in Winnipeg, with the remaining one-third scattered throughout the rest of the province.

We have previously asked where all those new doctors are. Now we know. They aren’t here, and that shortage left us without a surgeon for an entire 24-hour period this week.

It’s time for Asagwara to stop the partisan finger-pointing and start providing solutions. The current NDP government was elected based on a promise that it would “fix health care.” It’s time that it kept that promise.

They must get serious about addressing the doctor shortage in Brandon and Westman, not just Winnipeg. Until that happens, we should not be surprised to see additional staffing shortages and service disruptions occur.