'All hands on deck': Task force to release new tool measuring Manitoba's surgical, diagnostic backlog

A provincial task force is teaming up with Doctors Manitoba to release a new tool that will help Manitobans monitor the pandemic backlog of surgeries and diagnostic tests.

On Wednesday, Dr. Peter MacDonald, chair of Manitoba's Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force steering committee, said the task force has been working with Doctors Manitoba to develop a new online dashboard that will report surgical and diagnostic wait times.

"This will give Manitobans a broad view of the work that we are doing, where we have made progress and where we still have improvements to make," MacDonald said.

Dr. Kristjan Thompson, past president and board chair of Doctors Manitoba, said for months the organization has been reporting estimated backlog numbers separate from the task force, but said they are now looking forward to joining forces.

"It is an all hands on deck approach. We are all working together to clear this massive backlog," Thompson said.

He said most recent estimates show the backlog is somewhere between 102,000 to 128,000 cases, including between 32,000 and 40,000 surgeries, 12,000 to 17,000 diagnostic imaging tests, and 58,000 to 72,000 other procedures.

"This is still a very significant number," he said, adding Doctors Manitoba has also made a concerning discovery in wait times.

"We found that for nearly all procedures, patients are waiting longer today than they did before the pandemic, so we need to do better."

He said things are moving in the right direction, but there is still lots of work that needs to be done to catch up.

"Once we catch up, we really need to review and evaluate the need for testing and surgeries within this province every year, to ensure that our health system is increasing capacity to meet this growing need," he said.

David Matear, the provincial executive director of the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force, said the online dashboard has been in development since May and is expected to be released in July. He said the information in the dashboard will be updated monthly.