Manitoba health minister offers 'thoughts and prayers' to those affected by postponed surgeries

Manitoba's health minister offered a supportive word for the thousands of people who have been impacted by delayed surgeries and diagnostic procedures, but a critic says they want action.

Audrey Gordon announced last week that more surgeries would have to be postponed to increase intensive care capacity in the wake of rising COVID-19 numbers.

That decision wasn't made lightly, she said.

"I empathize with what you are experiencing. My thoughts and prayers are with you and any family member or friend or relative you have that is experiencing their surgery being postponed or their diagnostic test," Gordon said after a news conference on Monday.

"We want to turn this around and reorganize the health system so that we don't have to cancel surgeries or diagnostic tests. But right now, this is what we have to do as we see the numbers climbing. We need to ensure that our ICU has the capacity to care for individuals, so I hope this is for a very, very short time."

There are currently 146 Manitobans in hospital with COVID-19, including 31 in intensive care, the province said in a news release on Monday.

Meanwhile, there are 130,000 people waiting for surgeries and diagnostic procedures because of the pandemic, Doctors Manitoba has said.

Of those, 52,000 are surgeries, 41,000 are diagnostic imaging procedures (like MRIs, CAT scans and ultrasounds) and 35,000 are other procedures, like endoscopies, mammograms and allergy tests, the organization said.

Gordon said the province is committed to addressing the backlogs.

A task force will be announced later this month with the aim of doing just that.

The province committed $50 million to addressing postponed medical procedures in its budget for the year, and some of that money will go toward the task force, Gordon said.

Meanwhile, she has put out a request for proposals for service providers to help perform some operations and tests.

Manitoba NDP health critic and Union Station MLA Uzoma Asagwara wonders why this is just coming out now.

"Doctors MB raised the alarm about the surgical backlog in June and the Government did NOTHING [sic]," they said in a tweet.

"Far too little and way too late. People are suffering now."