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Modest improvements to Manitoba’s surgery, diagnostic backlog: task force

The latest update from Manitoba's Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force shows modest improvements to the waitlist backlog that has ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. MR

The latest update from Manitoba’s Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force is showing modest improvements to the waitlist backlogs that have ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The task force provided the following waitlists breakdown as of Jan. 31:

  • CT scans: 17,241 (down 12 per cent from December)
  • Ultrasounds: 20,461 (down 16 per cent from December)
  • MRIs: 14,780 (down 13 per cent from December)

Surgical slates are also ramping up at sites across the province.

Notably, the task force says Concordia Hospital has been at full capacity – four slates per day – for several weeks, St. Boniface General Hospital has been running full cardiac slates since Jan. 31, and Brandon Hospital is reporting a return to pre-COVID levels for surgery and endoscopy.

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Additionally, two surgical slates and one endoscopy room are expected to go back into operation next week in Winnipeg.

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Beginning March 14, many staff are expected to return to their normal duties, meaning surgical capacity across the province can ramp up further.

Also included in the update is a note that spinal surgeries have begun to take place in Fargo, N.D., “marking the start of a pilot program that will expand over time.”

Those procedures are part of an out-of-province referral program, whereby Manitobans are referred by their specialists “typically for conditions such as spinal stenosis and chronic degenerative disc disease.”

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