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Editorial: Province’s new health care plan looks good on the surface

The provincial government’s new clinical and preventive services plan to revamp Manitoba’s health care system over the next five years, which was released in late November, seems to make sense upon a cursory reading of the summary.

The provincial government’s new clinical and preventive services plan to revamp Manitoba’s health care system over the next five years, which was released in late November, seems to make sense upon a cursory reading of the summary.

Making services available outside of Winnipeg will certainly make sense to anyone who has ever had to make even one trip to Winnipeg for a medical appointment, let alone those who have to go multiple times, sometimes twice within the space of a few weeks, thanks to the inability of the various parts of the system to work in conjunction with each other and make the process easier, not just for the providers, but also for the users – and funders  – of the system. It seems like common sense to suppose that it would be cheaper, in the long run, to make services available closer to where rural and Northern Manitobans live, rather than pay for bus tickets or gas reimbursement or airfare and possibly accommodations, meals and taxi fares for escorts while inconveniencing everyone more than an hour away from Winnipeg.

But while the plan looks good, it doesn’t lay out exactly what is going to happen in specific detail either. Part of that is because it is in the early stages of being implemented, but at this point the government isn’t even saying where the northern regional treatment hub will be, let alone what services will be available there and when. Perhaps that’s a wise idea, given that, in Thompson, it looks like nine months will have elapsed between water damage being discovered in three of the Thompson General Hospital’s four operating rooms last June, and the affected rooms being returned to operational status, which is now not expected to happen until early March.

As it stands right now, Manitoba’s health care system is terribly inefficient, particularly for those of us in the north. If you have a child who needs surgery, most likely that will have to be done in Winnipeg. If you have a chronic condition that is difficult to diagnose, you’ll probably have to go see a specialist in Winnipeg, maybe three months after the referral is made, if you’re lucky. That consultation will take 15 minutes and might not even require any physical examination, which makes it seem like a huge waste of time, especially when Telehealth facilities are available up here, though many doctors in the south may not be familiar with the system or not have easy access to the required technology.

As much as the province’s plan is praiseworthy for its common-sense approach, however, that also prompts the question: why did it take 18 months and who knows how much money to come up with ideas that many rural Manitobans and northerners have been suggesting for years?

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