Manitoba government accepts health report commissioned by NDP

The province has accepted a report about health-care services commissioned by the former NDP government.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority procured the report, Provincial Clinical and Preventive Services Planning for Manitoba, by a team from Health Intelligence Inc. in 2015.

In a letter to the Ministry of Health, Seniors and Active Living accompanying the report, principal researcher David Peachey said healthcare is a work-in-progress which will never have an endpoint.

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The report added that through incremental implementation its recommendations would align with the government's priorities and fiscal realities.

"It has been observed that up-front costs in health care, if carefully selected, will not only improve the quality of outcomes, but also can decrease system costs, both directly and through redistribution," Peachey wrote.

The report included detailed analyses of data reflecting the health needs of Manitobans and interviews with stakeholders across the province.

In a news release, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the report was to "provide recommendations for ways to move Manitoba toward an evidence-based health services plan."

"The resulting document will be reviewed and the recommendations considered as we move forward with determining the sustainable future of health care in Manitoba."

The report includes recommendations such as a better use of technologies like Telehealth to reduce transportation costs and new team-based models of care.  It also identified 10 priority areas including palliative care, mental health and addictions, home care and maternal health-care services.

"The system we have now is not sustainable and will be even less so as federal funding for health care continues to erode," Goertzen said in the release.

In December, Ottawa and the provinces failed to reach a deal on health-care funding which left the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) spending increase reverting to three per cent a year as of April 1, 2017. Other provinces, including Saskatchewan, have reached separate agreements with the federal government.

Goertzen said the recommendations would be included in "consideration of how we can make our system better and affordable into the future."

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The province hired consulting firm KPMG LLP last November to find ways to eliminate waste in Manitoba's health care system and improve its efficiency and responsiveness. 

The province says the government, regional health authorities, Diagnostic Services of Manitoba, Cancer Care Manitoba and the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba will be included in the Health Care Sustainability and Innovation Review.

The NDP said it's time to make that review public.

"The government has had this review of the health-care system in its hands for weeks, but Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen won't allow Manitobans to know what's in it or what their plans are," Matt Wiebe, the NDP health critic, said in a news release on Tuesday.

The report was submitted to the government on Jan. 20, according to the news release.