Too many Manitobans are waiting too long for surgical procedures

Too many Manitobans are waiting too long for surgical procedures - the story of Jadon Dutchak

There are increasing numbers of Manitobans who are waiting for surgery, often desperately needed life-saving surgery. On Wednesday March 16, I brought up concerns about Jason Dutchak’s wait for essential heart surgery. It is but one example of many people who are waiting too long.

Delays in Accessing Health Care Constituent Case Concern

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Speaker, in Manitoba today, delays in accessing health care are extraordinary.

Jason Dutchak from Morden is an example. He's 49 years old. He's been working and he wants to work. However, he has a very serious heart condition–severe aortic valve stenosis–which needs surgery. He's short of breath, can't do much in the way of exercise, tires from walking to the end of his driveway, is extremely fatigued and cannot work. Heart surgery can correct this, but he has waited since September of last year and still hasn't even been given a date for the surgery.

I've written to the minister about this urgent situation.

Hon. Audrey Gordon (Minister of Health): Unfortunately, due to the public health–the health information act, I cannot speak to specific cases on the floor of this Chamber. But I do know that our health incident command team and the entire health system, front-line health-care workers are working very hard to return to pre-pandemic surgical slate levels so that individuals can get their surgeries.

And Health Sciences Centre has increased their surgical slates from seven to 10 to 12 to 13. Concordia Hospital has been running at full capacity for several weeks. All cardiac slates at St. Boniface general hospital have been running since the end of January. We've started–restarted surgeries in Brandon and Carman.

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Comparison between Manitoba and South Dakota shows dramatic impact of Physical Distancing

Manitoba implemented physical distancing measures in mid-March. South Dakota has still not made physical distancing mandatory. The result is a dramatic difference in the incidence of covid-19 viral infections between the two jurisdictions. This graph shows the number of people with Covid-19 infections from March 27 to April 14. Manitoba ( red line ) started leveling off about April 4 and has seen only a small increase in Covid-19 infections since then. South Dakota ( blue line ) has seen a dramatic increase in Covid-19 infections since April 4. Those who are skeptical of the impact of physical distancing in Manitoba should look at this graph! Data are from the Johns Hopkins daily tabulations

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The Gerrard Report

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