Doctors Manitoba releases vision to fix province’s health-care system

The organization that advocates for physicians in Manitoba has shared its vision to fix health care in the province, and is hoping parties will pay attention to it as the election looms.

Doctors Manitoba released its “Prescription for Health Care” on Thursday, which includes recommendations made by doctors in the province on ways to improve health care.

“Our province’s health-care system is struggling right now between unreasonably long wait times and struggling to recover from the impacts of the pandemic,” said Dr. Michael Boroditsky, president of Doctors Manitoba. “We need a clear path forward to stabilize and improve health care.”

Some of the recommendations proposed include adding 400 more doctors in the province over the next five years and building up hospital capacity. The report also recommends developing alternatives to hospital care in Manitoba.

Doctors Manitoba also wants to see an expansion of mental health and addiction services and to find a way to reduce wait times.

The plan has been shared with Manitoba political parties before it was released.

"This platform we’re putting forward or these points we’re putting forward are based on months and even years of consultation. As we said, a prescription for what we’d like political parties to look at and hopefully adopt come Oct. 3,” Boroditsky said. “It’s to drive conversation and to push forward what we think would be a better way to improve our health-care system.”

The Manitoba Liberals said in a statement that their health-care platform closely aligns with what Doctors Manitoba wants.

"To really change health care for the better in Manitoba, we need a revolution in prevention,” Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said in a statement. “We’ve committed to that by making sure every Manitoban has a clinic with a family physician or nurse practitioner, with wraparound care from health teams. The goal is faster access to local care, which can prevent complications that land you in the ER or hospital.”

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives said they will be releasing more details on their health-care plan further into the election campaign.

"I'd like to thank Doctors Manitoba for their collaboration with us in government. If re-elected, we will continue building a strong relationship with them," said PC Leader Heather Stefanson in a statement.

"Our PC Team is committed to healing health-care. We know health-care didn't break overnight, and we know it won't get fixed overnight - but we are on the road to recovery."

CTV News Winnipeg has reached out to the Manitoba NDP for a response.