Manitoba health report seeks surgical consolidation, fewer family doctors – CP

Source: The Canadian Press
Feb 8, 2017 

WINNIPEG _ A report on Manitoba’s health-care system recommends general surgery in Winnipeg be consolidated at three hospitals.

The report _ commissioned in 2015 by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and released by the province Tuesday _ says the surgery should be done at the Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface General Hospital and one community hospital.

It says the remaining city hospitals should be designated for convalescent and rehabilitation services.

Other recommendations call for improvements to home care and a reduction in the number of family doctors as a percentage of the overall health-care workforce.

It also calls for new team-based models of care, a reduction in patient transportation costs and enhanced disease-prevention programs.

Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen says the government will consider the recommendations as it tries to put health care on a more sustainable financial footing.

The report, called Provincial Clinical and Preventive Services Planning for Manitoba, Doing Things Differently and Better, said there are too many hospitals in Winnipeg providing surgical and anesthesiology services, particularly for orthopedic procedures.

“The actual number of patients that require an acute level of medical care could be consolidated into three hospitals. The majority of patients in medical beds in the WRHA do not require this level of care and, in fact, are at the level of convalescence or simply waiting for a non-hospital option,” the report said.

It notes that Manitoba has 73 hospitals, “a large number for a population of 1.3 million,” and that many smaller, rural health facilities are de facto providers of long-term and personal care, even though they are funded as hospitals.

The 233-page report recommends home-care services be expanded and extended to indigenous communities, and urges improved training for home-care workers and the creation of new provincial standards for the service.

It points out that with the advancement of team approaches to primary health care, there will be less of a need for family physicians as a percentage of overall health providers.

By 2025, it said, family physicians could make up 27 per cent of the health-care workforce, down from the current level of 38 per cent. (Winnipeg Free Press)

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