Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 5, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A8 Winnipeg free press sunday november 5, 2006 sunday special How Lon should it take to get help a snapshot of health care wait lists one year later health reporter Jen Skerritt and legislature reporter Mia Rabson gave our provinces overburdened health care system a Quick checkup Over the past few weeks. Here a their report. Mike Aporius / Winnipeg free press o n oct. 31, 2005, then health minister Tim Sale unveiled the provinces blueprint to bring waiting lists Down in nine priority areas. Among the plans were to train and recruit More doctors and improve computer tracking of wait lists. One year later has the $155-million strategy worked some patients Are getting in faster but most Waits Are still too Long and in some areas they re getting longer. If you Are suffering chronic pain for example and your doctor can to help you it could take almost three years to see a specialist at the pain clinic. Even health minister Theresa Oswald says her govern ment knows it has to do better. We re showing really terrific Progress but we re not there yet said Oswald who inherited responsibility for Manitoba a health care system in september when she replaced Sale. There a no question we still have challenges on the pain clinic and the sleep clinic. Its wholly she said an announcement to shorten the wait for the pain clinic is expected As Early As this week. Tory health critic Myrna Driedger said for $3.6 billion a year the system should be Able to deliver prompt care. The governments slogan better care sooner has become a joke Driedger said. When we re seeing the kind of Waits we re now seeing for chemotherapy there is a deep seated systemic problem in our health care below is a comparison of the provinces wait lists then and now ? and some of the faces behind the numbers. 2005 2006 comments cardiac surgery Waits were Cut drastically in an overhaul of the cardiac care program Fol number of patients waiting 122 136 lowing the 2003 death of Diane Gorsuch who had waited More than two urgent patients waited 6 Days 6 Days years for heart surgery that never came. The number of patients waiting Semi urgent patients waited 21 Days 13 Days has grown marginally from 122 patients to 136. Non urgent patients waited 61 Days 70 Days hip and knee surgery a $13.5-million investment in hip and knee replacement surgery has finally number of patients waiting 3,131 2,571 dented this waiting list. Average wait time 44 weeks 24 weeks partly responsible for the reduction this year was a focus on getting the patients who had waited the longest onto the operating table. There Are now 287 patients who Are considered Long waiters by Manitoba health mean ing they have waited More than 41 weeks for their surgery. In january 2006, there were 1,287 patients in that category. There is also now a program to get patients who Arent physically ready for surgery prepared through a program called in Winnipeg and Brandon 408 patients Are now going through rehab in route to surgery. Cataract surgery number of patients waiting average wait time 3,603 16 weeks 2,989 16 weeks diagnostic testing Fri magnetic resonance imaging there has been a major increase in the number of mris and it scans being done but the Waits Arent dropping significantly because More tests Are number of patients waiting 5,979 4,078 being ordered every year. Average wait time it scan 15 weeks 8 weeks last january the province used $1 million of the wait list Money to launch a Pilot project at children a Hospital to help guide doctors in decide number of patients waiting 10,414 11,097 ing what tests Are necessary. The project wont be completed for two years. Average wait time ultrasound 14 weeks 11 weeks the province is also in negotiations to buy certain tests and procedures from the Maples surgical Centre. But those negotiations Are now almost a number of patients waiting 15,117 20,386 year old and no agreement has yet been reached. Average wait time 13 weeks 15 weeks mental health there Are no Good centralized waiting lists for mental health treatment in Manitoba kids dental surgery number of kids waiting average wait time 961 4.5 months 936 3.5 months paediatric dentist or. Robert Diamond said he is extremely frustrated his cases booked for children a Hospital get bumped by other programs because they Are not deemed to be urgent. Pain clinic the wait to get an appointment at the pain clinic which uses Anes number of patients waiting 1,300 1,548 theists to deliver treatments to patients with varying conditions average wait time 30 months 34 months causing chronic pain has grown by four months in the last year to two years and 10 months. Sleep clinic number of patients waiting average wait time 3,309 3.6 to 7.7 years 3,300 3.4 to 8.3 years cancer treatment there is now a shortage of oncologists at cancer care Manitoba meaning patients with certain types of cancer Are waiting months to get in to Start chemotherapy treatments. That a a problem that want even on the radar screen a year ago though Oswald says its something that was brought to her attention almost As soon As she was sworn in. Those who wait the faces behind Manitoba sailing health care system mental health diagnostic testing hip and knee chronic pain / children a sleep clinic surgery pain clinic dental surgery a artist Victoria Stone has e mily Silver is one of the w Winnipeg bus Driver been struggling to Over provinces top competitive Larry Schenkeveld real s Ince april 2005, 52-year-old j Jennifer Burnell was Only t free year old Alaiya come mental illness for More rowers but recently she a been sized something was wrong Marleen Wawryk has been 13 when she began to expert Luna a molars Are so Rotten than a decade. She says Manito stuck in dry Dock because of a More than a decade ago. The living with a stabbing pain in ence intense pain in her right they be decayed almost to her Bas health care system is too persistent ankle injury. Once Active energetic Man Sud her knee that regularly brings Arm. Gums. She can to eat on the left overburdened and understaffed two years ago the 21-year-old Denly found himself so tired he her to tears. She was diagnosed with Side of her Mouth and frequently to handle cases like hers. Broke her ankle. She says it could barely stay awake. The Mother of two and Call chronic Myo facial ? a Condi cries out in pain. Stone suffers from Post Trau never healed properly and it id be sitting eating supper Centre worker said her right Tion that causes her Arm to there Are 936 children like Matic stress disorder anxiety has been bothering her Ever and id doze off he says. I had knee has deteriorated so badly freeze up giving her intense Alaiya in Manitoba who Are cur and depression ? a triple diag since. No due to arthritis that doctors chronic pain and limited move gently on the waiting list to Nosis that Only a handful of pay in August Silver a doctor did he notes in his line of work believe she needs a full knee ment on her right Side. Have surgery to remove Rotten Chi artists in the City specialize a special test on her ankle and falling asleep on the Job puts replacement. By the time she was 16, Bur Teeth. Some of them can have in. Found an Odd amount of blood at other Peoples lives in jeopardy. Doctors also told Wawryk last Nell was having regular inject the procedures done at a dental she was fortunate to Snag an her initial injury Point. To Rule almost two years ago his september she would have to Tion treatments at health office or at the Misericordia appointment with a psychiatrist out anything serious they family doctor finally ordered wait a year and a half for sciences Centre rehab Hospital. Health Centre. Last Winter. But he was unable decided to run a it scan on the him to undergo a sleep study to surgery. She says the treatments gave but because Alaiya has Aneth to treat her specific needs and ankle. Determine whether he had a Why do i not deserve a life her Relief for years ? until sheer condition that causes an referred her to a clinical pay now Silver a waiting for the condition known As sleep Apnoea. Where i can get up and walk had a flare up last december. Extreme potentially life threat Cho Logist. Scan to confirm she Sok to that a where people Stop she says. Why do i not deserve that a when Burnell now 24, ening reaction to aesthetic in april a psychologist train. She a put rowing on Hia breathing momentarily in their a life that Spain free discovered her doctor had she can Only have the surgery referred her to another psychic Tus and has been wearing a sleep disrupting their rest. Wawryk Spain is so severe retired and shed have to be put at children a Hospital. Artist for proper treatment. Walking Boot. Last summer after waiting 18 she can barely walk Short Dis on the wait list for treatment All her great grandmother Pat Stone has since been waiting but doctors have told Silver months for the test Tances and regularly misses Over again. Burnell was off Klippenstein says Alaiya was to see that specialist for seven just getting the scan could take Schenkeveld was told the wait Days of work. She a unable to work in extreme pain and determined to need the surgery months and said no one can Tell three months or longer. Would be at least another four take most painkillers because decided she could to wait until last Spring. She was put on the her How much longer her wait in any other year it would be years. Of complications with her Stom next july to get Relief. Waiting list in july and Given a will be. Quite frustrating not being Able its totally ridiculous says Ach and says there Are Days when i Haven to been Able to Date of oct. 31. Then suddenly she a desperate for help and to Row because i a waiting for Schenkeveld. There has got to when she wants to scream and get the treatment that i need that Date was cancelled. Considering paying for treat a scan she says. And its such be something cry from the intense shooting my Arm stops moving and its its very frustrating says ment at a mental health facility a Short rowing the father of five kids under pains. Very painful she says. I a Klippenstein. We be had her All in Ontario just to get better. Silver says she a hoping to get 12, Schenkeveld headed off to since she began waiting for left not Able to do anything with prepared for this to happen. I my life becomes completely the it scan by november to Toronto where he finally had surgery on her right knee her that one tried everything. I talked to screwed up and Basic function verify whether Shell be Able to the test on aug. 28. Manitoba left knee has Given out. Burnell sought out a physio ing becomes very difficult she jump Back in the boat next year. Health paid for some of it but now she a waiting for a Sec therapist who could treat her she has now been reached says. Its that feeling there a i a not sure How Long i a Schenkeveld had to cover much Ond total knee replacement condition using acupuncture used for nov. 14, but Klippen nowhere else to going to be waiting she says. Of his own travel and Accomma which Wawryk says Shell be and paid for it herself since she Stein in to certain that will even if she gets an appoint Dation. Lucky to get by the end of 2007. Want covered by insurance. Happen either. They a go to a ment Here Stone says Psychia but it was Worth it he says. She is no longer Able to take she says she was Lucky she private clinic but can to afford trusts often Don to have a lot of he discovered he has severe Normal Steps and either Shuf could afford to alleviate the it. Time to spend with their Apnoea and stopped breathing Fles along or uses a Scooter and condition that leaves her we Don to have a lot of patients talking about the Root 127 times every hour while he a Cane to get around. She a depressed in pain and unable Money says Klippenstein. To cause. Instead she says she a was asleep. He is now on a depressed by her condition and to work or do other things she come up with a couple of thou been dispensed prescription machine when he sleeps that angry at the health system for loves. Sand dollars to fix her Teeth after prescription by doctors keeps his air passages open and making her suffer for so Long. Others she says must suffer in to who attempt to mask the sym keeps him breathing. I be got no Quality of life i a and wait. Toms with medication. Just weeks later he already going crazy this can to go on i a sure there slots of peo there in to really time to do feels the difference. She says. Ple out there who Are not Able to the talk therapy unless you re do anything just because of really Lucky she said. You go wait times she says. In you get pills there a photos from left to right by Marc Gallant Mike Aporius. absolutely no Boris Minkevich John Woods and Wayne Glowacki. ;