No agreement reached over spinal surgeries, Sanford Health says

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This article was published 20/01/2022 (1717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Officials for a health centre in North Dakota confirmed they are in talks with the Province of Manitoba regarding a plan to accept Manitobans for spinal surgeries, but it may be some time before any patients travel south of the border. 

On Wednesday, Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon, along with several members of the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force, announced they are in talks with Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., as part of a medical out-of-province referrals program. She said a few hundred patients deemed stable but suffering from certain spinal conditions could be given the option of travelling by car to the U.S. hospital for their surgeries. 

Gordon said this will be an interim measure when the situation between Manitoba and North Dakota is safe and Sanford is in a position to perform surgeries safely. 

However, Bryan Nermoe, CEO of Sanford Health, told a North Dakota news outlet, InForum, on Jan. 19 — the day the announcement was made in Winnipeg — that no agreement has been reached and said he couldn’t predict when any Manitobans would come to Fargo for surgery. 

Sanford Health Fargo is not preparing to accept any new patients from Manitoba in the immediate future, and will only do so at a mutually agreed upon time as the pandemic and the health centre’s capacity allows, according to Brittany Sachdeva, vice-president of operations at Sanford Health Fargo. Their priority is the health care needs of their local communities. 

Sachdeva did confirm they were in talks over collaborating with Manitoba and considering a deal but stressed nothing has been finalized. 

“Discussions have been occurring for some time and while we do not have a signed agreement at this point, we are looking forward to finalizing it in the near future,” she said. 

She added Sanford Health is pleased to be able to consider partnering for specific, limited, high-end specialty services similar to what many other major medical centers located along the U.S.-Canada border have done. 

Transferring patients between Canada and the United States has been going on for decades. Ian Shaw, lead for the provincial health system transformation, said this process has been in place for 40 years and has been used to manage patients in other jurisdictions in both countries. In Manitoba’s case, when patients are identified for those services by their referred specialist, Manitoba has negotiated this relationship on an individual basis. 

“Earlier in the year, this was identified by surgeons to work through, and we have been working with them to develop a structure and a process to manage patients, co-ordinate their care, have their pre- and post-care delivered,” he said. 

This program is flexible and allows doctors in Manitoba and North Dakota to manage patients together, he said. They are in the final stages of development and taking steps with Sanford to identify patients to refer to specialists. An update will be provided in the near future. 

The Ministry of Health did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

This story is developing. 

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