Manitoba inks surgery dealswith Thunder Bay, Cleveland, N.D.

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This article was published 24/08/2022 (1458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The province has signed three contracts with out-of-province clinics to reduce the backlog of Manitobans waiting for hip or knee replacement surgery.

The Manitoba government has made deals with Big Thunder Orthopedic Associates in northwestern Ontario, Sanford Health in North Dakota, and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Peter MacDonald, chairman of the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force steering committee, said the contracts are an interim measure.

“Manitoba physicians and other members of the patient’s health-care team will work closely with out-of-province providers to ensure a smooth process for patients. This includes the planning leading up to their surgery, as well as an integrated plan for followup care when patients return to Manitoba.”

A pilot project with Big Thunder Orthopedic Associates will launch with six patients at the end of August, the province said in a release.

The program is expected to expand to provide care for as many as 20 to 30 people per month, or around 300 procedures per year, at locations in Dryden, Fort Frances and Kenora as the program is fully implemented, it said.

Manitoba is expanding its agreement with Sanford Health in North Dakota, which has provided spinal surgeries to 28 eligible patients in recent months. In September, as many as 10 patients per month are expected to travel to the clinic for hip or knee surgeries, and 125 procedures may be completed this year, with capacity growing to 250 procedures in 2023-24.

The contract with the Cleveland Clinic for hip surgeries is to begin later in September, with 100 people expected to receive care this year and 200 in 2023.

Eligible patients will be identified by their Manitoba health-care provider and contacted to determine if they wish to travel for care, the government said in a release.

“For the first time, we’re putting a new process in place that empowers patients to self-identify if they are interested in travelling out of province and they are on a surgical wait list already for hip or knee replacement,” MacDonald said.

Eligibility criteria can be reviewed online at gov.mb.ca/health/dsrecovery/solutions.html. After submitting information through an e-form or email, the task force will work with those patients and their care provider to determine if an out-of-province site is an option.

From January to June this year, more than 2,250 hip and knee surgeries were completed in Manitoba — more than the number completed in the previous two years during the same time frame (1,900 in 2020, nearly 1,800 in 2021 and near pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the province said.)

The Manitoba government has promised $110 million this year to address surgical and diagnostic wait lists, to ensure Manitobans get the procedures they need, sooner. The Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force was established in December 2021 to identify and implement these solutions.

Adding more surgical and diagnostic capacity in Manitoba would be challenging given the major shortage of doctors, nurses and other health care workers, said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Candace Bradshaw.

“Out-of-province surgeries can offer short-term help, but a longer-term solution in Manitoba is needed to clear the massive backlog that has accumulated during the pandemic,” Bradshaw said in a statement.

The provincial government should consider alternatives to sending patients out of Manitoba for surgery, NDP Leader Wab Kinew said. Some options could include temporarily hiring out-of-province surgical teams to perform procedures in Manitoba, stepped-up recruitment for nurses, and bringing retired nurses back into the system, he said.

“People are still waiting too long to get a surgery in Manitoba. So given the amount of runway that the PCs have had on this, it’s disappointing to hear that their answer is still highway medicine, meaning sending people out of province, and in some cases out of the country to get the services that they need,” Kinew said.

“Public health care is a basic Canadian value, and I think it’s a pretty reasonable expectation that you should be able to get the surgery you need in the province where you live and where you pay taxes.”

Manitobans should also be concerned about the cost of sending patients out of province, Kinew said.

“It’s a less efficient measure that’s going to be more expensive,” he said.

» Winnipeg Free Press