Task force focused on sending surgical patients out of province over building Manitoba's capacity: doctor

The interim head of neurology at Winnipeg's biggest hospital says provincial efforts to cut medical wait lists are too heavily focused on sending patients out of province rather than funding treatment options locally.

In a letter to the editor published Tuesday in the Winnipeg Free Press, Dr. Dan Roberts wrote that he met last month with an executive from the provincial task force dedicated to reducing the pandemic backlog of surgeries and other medical procedures.

That executive tried to sell him on the idea of sending some multiple sclerosis patients to clinics in the United States to help cut wait-lists in Manitoba, Roberts wrote.

The province already has agreements in place to send some patients out of province for other procedures, including  hip, knee and spinal surgeries, as part of its effort to reduce the backlog of procedures built up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Roberts said that idea wasn't practical, since most MS patients need complex followup care close to home, he suggested building up local capacity instead by bolstering the multiple sclerosis clinic in Winnipeg, his letter said.

The task force has yet to respond to the ideas he presented in that March 15 meeting, said Roberts, and he isn't impressed. 

"My unhappiness with the state of our health-care system is no secret," wrote Roberts, who has previously been a vocal critic of some of the Progressive Conservative government's health-care choices.

He wrote there is a "clear difference" between turning to private companies in areas "where they might provide useful cost-effective service" and "turning the system into a pork barrel."

Roberts didn't respond Tuesday to a request for comment from CBC.

NDP accuses government of ignoring experts

The Opposition New Democrats used the letter in question period Tuesday to support their claim Premier Heather Stefanson's government is ignoring the advice of experts. 

"The premier should start to listen to those on the front lines and she should pay close attention to the words of Dr. Dan Roberts, who told them their approach was not going to work," NDP Leader Wab Kinew said during question period.

"That's the record of the Stefanson government. That's their record when it comes to neurology." 

Premier Heather Stefanson responded that her government is listening to front-line experts, reading a list of the doctors sitting on the diagnostic and surgical backlog task force.

"We will continue to listen to those doctors," the premier said. 

This isn't the first time Roberts has raised the issue of provincial support for treatment options for multiple sclerosis patients.

Last year, he held a news conference to warn the MS clinic was on the "verge of collapse" due to a lack of specialists.

He hosted the event "out of sheer desperation," after two years of pleading for help behind the scenes, he wrote in his letter published Tuesday.

Within two weeks of that news conference, "all of the resources we had been pleading for were miraculously approved," he wrote, including hiring three more MS specialists and three nurse practitioners. The clinic should be running at full capacity by October, his letter said.

Roberts said he spent the remainder of his meeting with the task force member in March discussing "minor resource issues" that he was told the committee would address. He has yet to hear a response, he said.

Thompson hospital short lab technologists: NDP

Kinew told reporters he fully endorses Roberts's position. 

"I think if you assembled all those physicians [that Stefanson named] in a room, Dr. Dan Roberts would be the senior doctor in that room," he said following question period.

"I respect all the physicians that the premier named there, but again, we need to pay close attention when Dr. Roberts speaks out."

A provincial spokesperson didn't comment on the substance of Roberts's letter, but said access to "both public and private sector health-service providers have been important interim measures" to treat patients "as we expand capacity and build a more resilient public health system at home."

The NDP continued their health-care criticisms in question period by citing statistics from the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals that say Thompson's hospital only has three of the 12 medical laboratory technologists it needs. 

Health Minister Audrey Gordon deflected that question, but instead accused the NDP of hiding its own plan for health care. She pointed to the party's 2019 election pledge that it would allow private home-care contracts to expire.

She also took aim at the NDP's recent promise to cut administration at the provincial organization Shared Health if elected in the upcoming provincial election.

Gordon questioned which front-line services would be at risk if an NDP were to make the cuts.