Not much progress on health-care promises

Opinion

When the Manitoba NDP won a majority government in October 2023 on a campaign built almost entirely around fixing health care, they didn’t promise miracles.

The party and its leader, Wab Kinew, were careful not to claim the crumbling health system they inherited could be transformed overnight.

But at the same time, nobody expected things to get worse.

According to a new survey by the Manitoba Nurses Union, more than three-quarters of nurses say conditions on the front lines of health care have either deteriorated or stayed the same since the NDP took office. It’s a stark reminder that political promises, while good for winning elections, don’t necessarily translate into change for burned-out nurses or patients waiting hours in emergency rooms.

This is not an opposition talking point. It’s what nurses themselves are saying.

The union survey paints a bleak picture: a health-care workforce that remains deeply demoralized, exhausted and unconvinced that real change is around the corner.

More than half of nurses surveyed report that safety in the workplace has worsened in the past year. Many say they’re still working short-staffed more often than not. And few believe the culture inside the system is improving.

It’s fair to ask: how long should the public — and those working in the trenches of the system — wait before judging the government’s progress?

No government can undo seven years of deep cuts, closures and centralization in less than two years. The previous PC government decimated parts of the health system, including ERs and surgical capacity. The Tories drove experienced staff out and failed to replenish the pipeline. Their reforms were poorly planned and unevenly executed, causing chaos that still hasn’t fully settled.

But Wab Kinew and the NDP knew all that when they took over.

They knew they were walking into a mess. In fact, they campaigned on it and vowed to clean it up. Now that they’re in charge, the responsibility is theirs.

So far, though, the improvements have been hard to spot.

Wait times in emergency departments are largely unchanged and, in some places, worse than they were a year ago. Primary-care access remains scarce. And while there has been a net increase in nurses working in the system since the NDP took over, it hasn’t translated into lower wait times, better access to care or reduced burnout for front-line workers.

Manitobans are still waiting — literally — for the core promises of the 2023 election to materialize: shorter waits, more staff and better care.

And make no mistake, public patience has limits.

The political honeymoon the NDP has enjoyed since taking office is already starting to fray. The MNU survey is just one piece of evidence. Anecdotally, stories continue to pour in of long waits for surgeries, patients being treated in hallways and family doctors in short supply.

One problem is that the government hasn’t clearly communicated timelines or benchmarks for improvement. What does “fixing health care” look like? When can patients expect shorter ER waits? How many nurses need to be hired before shifts are fully staffed? The lack of specifics makes it hard to measure progress and easier for the public to lose confidence.

The NDP needs to start setting clear, measurable goals. Not vague commitments or long-term visions, but short- and medium-term targets that give patients and front-line workers hope that things are moving in the right direction. That should include timelines for staff recruitment, reductions in wait times and improved working conditions. Let people track the results.

It also means the government must move beyond platitudes and planning to actual implementation. If wage issues are still discouraging nurses from picking up extra shifts, fix them. If violence in hospitals is rising, then get serious about security and staff safety. Stop studying the problem and start acting on what front-line workers already know.

It’s also time to stop blaming the past. Yes, the PCs left a disaster behind. But the NDP ran on the idea that they were the ones to clean it up. If they didn’t anticipate how deep the damage went, that’s on them.

Health care is a long game. But it’s not an infinite one. Voters are willing to wait for real improvements, but only if they believe progress is being made. Right now, that belief is fading.

The government has time. But not forever. By this time next year, if wait times haven’t dropped and nurses still say the workplace is as toxic as it is today, the Kinew government will have a real problem on its hands — and no one left to blame.

Because when you promise to fix health care, people expect you to fix it. Not just say you’re trying.

» Tom Brodbeck is a Winnipeg Free Press columnist.