Manitoba isn’t doing enough to address health-care backlog: Opposition NDP

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began putting a strain on the province’s health care system, the Manitoba government established the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force.

The goal of the task force was to address the growing waitlist for diagnostic and surgical procedures, and other related services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the official opposition, Manitoba’s NDP party, says the government’s task force isn’t meeting the needed requirements.

“While Manitobans wait in pain, today’s update makes it clear that the PC government still won’t invest the resources into our health care system to get patients the care they need,” said Uzoma Asagwara, the NDP critic for health care, in a statement.

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“Not only have they refused Doctors Manitoba’s urgent plea to set an end date to clear the backlog, but they have broken their promise to have a fifth operating room open at Concordia by the end of the year. After years of cuts, Manitobans have lost faith in the PCs to run our health care system.”

The Manitoba government says that within the 2022 budget, $110 million will be invested to address the issues found by the task force, including $50 million in funding that went to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg in June.