Manitoba PC's Devastate Manitoba Health Care

The Doer government has quietly yanked its wait time data for diagnostic tests such as MRIs from the Manitoba Health home page on itswebsite.

Now I know why. Wait times for MRIs have nearly quadrupled over the past two years and I suppose government would rather keep that a secret.

Manitoba Health used to make it very easy to click on a "information on wait times" icon on its home page, providing the public with easy access to wait times for diagnostic tests such as elective ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs, broken down by individual hospitals.

In fact, they used to feature it right on the main government home page.

Ballooned

No more. Now you have to navigate through a search function or an index to find the data, which are no longer displayed as a link anywhere on Manitoba Health's main page.

When you eventually find the information you'll see why. Wait times for MRIs have ballooned as high as 21 weeks at the Pan Am Clinic. At Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface General
Hospital, the wait time is 19 weeks.

Brandon Regional Health Centre has the lowest wait time for MRIs at 10 weeks. But people in the Boundary Trails region in central Manitoba also have to wait 19 weeks for an elective MRI.

All told, the Manitoba average is 19 weeks, close to four times what it was in 2007.

Average wait times for MRIs were about five weeks in 2007, down from 15 weeks in 2002.

Winnipeg Sun

This is outrageous. If only the PCs hadn't devastated the Manitoba health system we'd have the bestest health care system in the whole wide world...

What I don't really get. is I went for a MRI on my lower back 2 weeks ago at St.Boniface and I only waited about 7 weeks. Definitely well below the 19 weeks it says in the article.

Well, if we're going to compare, my GP is referring me to an orthopedic guy for my shoulder (rotator cuff problem) and in July, I received notice that I'm scheduled for an MRI in November. I'm going to send a copy to Premier Donothing along with a thank you card.

The NDP government has devastated health care. They've loaded up the RHA's with their political cronies who, like most NDP followers, have their heads firmly implanted in their asses. Too bad they can't arrange surgery to correct that condition.

Rotator cuff....me too. I'm scheduled to get my MRI next week after having waited since February.

Fcuk Doer and all his bullcrap!!!

Wow, how did I get in so fast? Is chronic low back pain a priority? I guess I'm one of the lucky ones!

Bartron wrote:Wow, how did I get in so fast? Is chronic low back pain a priority? I guess I'm one of the lucky ones!

I guess there is an advantage to a pain in the ass.

Bartron wrote:Wow, how did I get in so fast? Is chronic low back pain a priority? I guess I'm one of the lucky ones!

Just wait to see what rosen has to say about this topic...

Well I'm 24 and low back pain in abnormal at my age, maybe that's why I got an MRI fairly quickly?

umm.. go to www.manitoba.ca
click search
type in wait times
click the first link

This is supposed to be difficult??

Consider the source Deank...

As much as you want to blame Doer or the PCs...they (directly) do not have anything to do with the problem.

The problem stems from a screwed up system...which nobody is willing to go in and fix.

There are pieces of equipment at some hospitals collecting dust instead of being used, because they have noone to operate them. At other hospitals, there is extra staff, and no equipment to use...but unions and associations have blocked anyone from telling these people where to work...or when.

What's wrong with scheduling MRIs etc. for 2am? Most people will be ecstatic just to get an appointment.

I've been told there's an entire wing of one hospital in this city that is empty...why?

The only way to truly fix the problem is to attack it head-on...at management level...and show accountability for what's being done and what's not.

There was discussion in this forum a few weeks ago (maybe months) about salaries for the health care management people.

Any of you have connections in high places? Have them appoint me into "head of healthcare" in Manitoba...on a 1-year contract (meaning I can't be fired no matter what I do (short of breaking the law)) and I will clean the system up. There will (probably) be dozens of people who will lose their jobs...but another 100 or so people will return to work or be hired (into jobs that actually do something).

The problem is, nobody wants to get their hands dirty, or make any REAL decisions for fear of reprucussion from some political group. Screw them...health care should not be about politics...it should be about treatment...and people waiting for 6 months for something that takes about 15 minutes to do is ridiculous.

My MRI was at 11pm.

I'm afraid you are dead wrong my American friend. Politics has everything to do with this. The bureaucracy is screwed up because politicians get involved at every turn. Beds (wings) go empty because there is not enough money to staff them.

The whole thing is fricked up because politicians are involved. Get them out of the way and just maybe we can start fixing the problems...

I've had one MRI. The wait time between being told I was going to have one and actually being put into the MRI was 11 hrs.

Yeah...but politicians aren't directly involved.
They appoint or select the people (probably doing favours), so indirectly they are involved...but it's not like Doer is in the hospitals making decisions and directing individuals.

If they would appoint someone who would actually do something, besides go to dinners and meetings.

A true administrator would walk through each hospital with a few assistants in tow. He/she would take notes the entire time, and instruct each of those assistants to do the same, based on their observations.

He/she would interview each facility manager, and department head and get an overview of what each of them believe the pros/cons of the facility are, and what they believe their duties are within that administration.

An evaluation program would be developed to track performance for ALL employees, with target goals & dates established to meet them.

All of this can be created and setup within about 3 months...and then monitored for another 3-6 months, and then changes, restructuring, personnel movement can occur over the next 3. Then a 1-year evaluation of changes, with tweaking and fine-tuning can be performed.

The ultimate target is to increase service, decrease wait-time, increase quality.

No...it's not the politicians...it's the lackluster management, and overstaffed "middle-management" which is causing the problem.

While the health-care system will ALWAYS run at a deficit...it's still a business...and needs to be managed/treated as such.

grumpy old man wrote:I'm afraid you are dead wrong my American friend. Politics has everything to do with this. The bureaucracy is screwed up because politicians get involved at every turn. Beds (wings) go empty because there is not enough money to staff them.

The whole thing is fricked up because politicians are involved. Get them out of the way and just maybe we can start fixing the problems...

When it comes to the health business, the politicians bow to the wishes of the likes of the classic empire-builder Brian "More Bureaucracy" Postl.

They have plenty of money, but not to hire doctors and nurses, but more butt-kissers.

Seriously AA, you are wrong wrong wrong...

Evil Doer and his minions are meddling in the operation of this organization and creating the turmoil we now enjoy. These people micro-manage. They direct instructions and funding wherever it is politically expedient. They increase funding for hospital A when maybe it should go to hospital B.

Don't get me wrong, the RHAs are every bit as bad but they do have a political master to bow down to at every turn.

JTF wrote:When it comes to the health business, the politicians bow to the wishes of the likes of the classic empire-builder Brian "More Bureaucracy" Postl.

But who hires this knob?

okay this is just getting bizarre.. now some NutJob on the sun site says that under filmon you needed to bring a credit card to the doctor's office.

See, that is what I mean. The PCs ruined health care in this province. Please disregard the fact that they have not been in power for 10~ years.

How many nurses did Filmon fire?

I do remember a time when you had to have cash for certain services at your doctor's office and it still continues today. But as GOM has said the PC's have not been in power for many years and the present governing party had done nothing to alleviate the pain on this situation. St Norberter, you are one of the lucky ones to get your MRI so quickly. Could possibly have been because what your doctor deemed to be urgent for treatment. I have rheumatoid arthiritis and did some damage to my knee a year ago and it took until February until I got in for my MRI but because it was not something that was going to potentially kill me I did not have a problem waiting. However a collegue of mine had a more serious concern (female in nature) where her doctor scheduled an MRI and her wait time was 10 weeks and between her and I calling all of the facilites that have MRI machines we were able to get her an appointment in 7 days. BUT it took the patient to do the work to speed up the process. Not her job, should be the job of the doctor's office management. And if the physicians had access to a centralized site that listed online appointments then the doctor could take a look at the first available time and log in to that appointment and schedule. If the patient doesn't like it then they go back to the long wait period. This may sound silly but the online tee time/reservation systems that some golf courses have could be an example of how scheduling MRI's and other similar diagnostics could work.

Yup patients should be asked a simple question before their doctor schedules an appointment like this.
How far are you willing to travel using your own money to get this test?

holly golightly wrote:I do remember a time when you had to have cash for certain services at your doctor's office and it still continues today. But as GOM has said the PC's have not been in power for many years and the present governing party had done nothing to alleviate the pain on this situation. St Norberter, you are one of the lucky ones to get your MRI so quickly. Could possibly have been because what your doctor deemed to be urgent for treatment. I have rheumatoid arthiritis and did some damage to my knee a year ago and it took until February until I got in for my MRI but because it was not something that was going to potentially kill me I did not have a problem waiting. However a collegue of mine had a more serious concern (female in nature) where her doctor scheduled an MRI and her wait time was 10 weeks and between her and I calling all of the facilites that have MRI machines we were able to get her an appointment in 7 days. BUT it took the patient to do the work to speed up the process. Not her job, should be the job of the doctor's office management. And if the physicians had access to a centralized site that listed online appointments then the doctor could take a look at the first available time and log in to that appointment and schedule. If the patient doesn't like it then they go back to the long wait period. This may sound silly but the online tee time/reservation systems that some golf courses have could be an example of how scheduling MRI's and other similar diagnostics could work.

Yeah, mine was a spinal injury. I did get bumped for a child that was in a car accident and had to be removed with the jaws.
They told me that that was one of the few injuries that would bump me.

Manitoba Health is encouraging MRI technicians to work overtime on weekends in order to reduce a backlog of patients that has swelled the maximum wait time for the diagnostic test to a provincial average of 19 weeks, nearly four times what it was less than two years ago.

Health Minister Theresa Oswald said yesterday that she and health officials agreed a few weeks ago to make more money available to pay overtime and hire new technicians so that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners could be run on the weekends.

Oswald was responding to a Winnipeg Sun story that revealed wait times for the diagnostic test now stand at an average of 19 weeks, up from 13 weeks in November 2008 and five weeks in November 2007. In 1999, the wait was 32 weeks, Oswald noted.

Oswald said the demand for MRIs increased sharply after the government allowed family doctors to order the tests beginning in November 2007. Previously only specialists had been allowed to order them.

"This was predictable," said Tory health critic Myrna Driedger. "You don't have to be a brain surgeon to know these numbers would spike when you allow more doctors to order them. Why didn't they plan for it?"

paul.turenne@sunmedia.ca