The province says it has made positive strides in the fight to eliminate Manitoba’s diagnostic and surgical backlog, which was largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an update Wednesday, the provincial task force tackling the issue said the total surgical backlog is down by 32 per cent since 2020, while the diagnostic backlog has dropped by 31 per cent.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon said some areas — including CT scans, cataract surgeries, urology tests, oral surgeries and ultrasound tests — have seen the logjams eliminated entirely.
Others, like cardiac surgery and adult allergy testing, have seen drops of more than 50 per cent.
Dr. Peter MacDonald, chair of the task force’s steering committee, said an anticipated 180,000 more cases will be treated in the next two years.
“As the task force has now made important strides in reducing and eliminating pandemic-induced backlogs, it is time to shift the focus to building health-system capacity now and for the future,” MacDonald said in a statement.
“Today marks a milestone as the task force shifts from prioritizing recovery to emphasizing increased capacity in a stronger, more resilient public health system.”
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Manitoba Liberal leader Dougald Lamont criticized the task force as being too politicized and omitting some key voices in health care, including the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.
“How can you possibly address diagnostic wait times when you don’t talk to the people providing tests in the public system?
“The task force was too political from the beginning and has been more focused on for-profit band-aids than on rebuilding the public health system that we all rely on.”