Manitoba spending $22M to improve cardiac care at St. Boniface Hospital

St. Boniface Hospital’s cardiac centre of excellence will receive $22.1 million from the provincial government in an effort to expand access for patients.

This investment will partially fund the creation of a new five-bed cardiac assessment zone to monitor patients. Fourteen additional inpatient beds are also in the works at the Winnipeg hospital.

“We’re going to do the work here to strengthen how patients move through the system with rapid cardiology consults in the emergency department better coordinated through a centralized access office,” said Manitoba Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-term Care Uzoma Asagwara, at a press conference on Friday.

These changes should reduce wait times and increase access to care, Asagwara added.

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Over 1,300 cardiac surgeries were completed at St. Boniface last year. The average number of people registered on this waitlist was approximately 93 people per month. This figure does not include people who are in pre-habilitation before surgery or those seeking other treatment options, the province said.

As of this January, 103 people remained on the heart surgery waitlist, according to provincial data.

Part of the funding will go towards hiring more staff, Premier Wab Kinew said. He did not say how many or what kind of professionals will be enlisted.

Manitoba’s Association of Health Care Professionals said the government must address staffing head on.

“(The) government is now promising more capacity when they have no plan to fix existing staff shortages for respiratory therapists, perfusionists, cardiology technologists, and many other specialized allied health professionals that are needed to do this life-saving work,” said Tim Smith, the association’s president, in response to the announcement.

“The health minister spoke today of the previous government not having a staffing plan. We are still waiting to see one from this government,” Smith continued.

Improving the state of cardiac care at the hospital was part of Kinew’s platform prior to his election in 2023. While campaigning, the now-premier promised to hire additional staff as a method to reduce wait times for care.