Manitoba boosting surgical and diagnostic capacity but not committing to timeframe to clear backlog

The Manitoba government is taking steps to improve access to health-care in the province, including increasing orthopedic surgeries at Concordia Hospital to help those who need hip and knee surgeries.

Manitobans waiting for delayed surgical and diagnostic procedures got an update Wednesday on the province’s work to clear the backlog but not everyone got the answers they wanted to hear.

The news came as a Surgical and Diagnostic Recovery Task Force put together by the province’s Progressive Conservative government to fix the problem gave its first progress update in weeks.

The government announced it’ll support a $700,000 expansion to increase surgical capacity at Concordia Hospital at an annual operating cost of $4.9 million.

“Our government is supporting the expansion of the orthopedic surgery program to add a fifth operating room, including operational support to expand capacity,” Audrey Gordon, Manitoba’s health minister, told a news conference at the Concordia Hip and Knee Institute.

Dr. Peter MacDonald, chair of the task force steering committee, said the province is currently able to perform about 5,000 hip and knee surgeries on an annual basis. MacDonald said the expansion of the orthopedic surgery program will boost capacity by an additional 1,000 surgeries per year.

“We do acknowledge that the number of surgeries is well behind here for this year and what we’re talking about, the additional 1,000 (surgeries) being after we’re back to base line,” MacDonald said. “Our goal is to get wait times back to the 2019 levels, pre-COVID.”

MacDonald said an additional orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hip and knee procedures will be recruited, four inpatient beds will be added and investments will be made in anesthesia staff.