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Operating a health care system with long waits for hip, knee and cataract surgeries is not optimal

On Tuesday May 10, I asked, in Question period, about the long wait times for hip, knee and cataract surgery.  It is clearly not optimum to run a health care system like this because the surgery has to be done and it is better for the patient and less costly for the system if it is done in a timely fashion rather than have the long wait times which are present now, and which were present going back to the years when the NDP were in government.

Hip, Knee and Cataract Surgery
Wait Times in Manitoba

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, the optimum way to run a health-care system to achieve the best care for Manitobans and the lowest cost to the Province is to have short wait times for critical procedures like hip, knee re­place­ments, cata­racts, cardiac surgeries.

      Surgeries need to be done. But when there is a delay instead of a quick turnaround, the health issue gets worse, the pain and suffering is greater and it costs more to fix the health issue. Manitoba is near the worst in Canada in this respect, as CIHI reports today.

      Why has this gov­ern­ment, both pre-pandemic and now–and the gov­ern­ment before it–been operating Manitoba's health-care system with long delays in the worst way for Manitobans who need care, and in the most expensive way?

 

Hon. Audrey Gordon (Minister of Health): I thank the member for River Heights for the question.

      Wait times and our surgical and diag­nos­tic backlog is a very im­por­tant issue for this gov­ern­ment. It's also a priority for our gov­ern­ment. That is why in Budget 2022, Madam Speaker, we are investing $110 million to address the backlog, to reduce those numbers.

      And it's not just about the numbers. Behind every number is a person, and so we want to ensure that every Manitoban knows that this gov­ern­ment realizes that they are in need of their surgical procedures and their diagnostics, and we are taking action through our Diag­nos­tic and Surgical Recovery Task Force.

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