Eight hundred additional joint surgeries to take place annually
Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara came to the Selkirk Regional Health Centre last week to announce that an additional 800 hip and knee surgeries will take place at the hospital every year.
“I am so happy to be here with all of you today. Thrilled to be able to announce that our government is adding 800 new hip and knee surgeries here at the Selkirk Regional Health Center,” said Asagwara.
The announcement is a commitment by the provincial government to provide annual funding and the staff to make these operations possible.
“Each one of these 800 surgeries will mean one less Manitoban waiting in pain. We know as a government that cutting wait times, reducing wait times, does not have to be complicated. You don’t need to send folks out of province or out of the country to get the essential surgical care that they need, can get, and deserve to get right here at home. What we do need is more staffing on the front lines. We need more allied health-care professionals. We need more nurses, support staff, physicians. We need more capacity, and that is exactly what today is all about. This is a big step in the right direction,” said Asagwara.
This announcement comes off the heels of the announcement of 15 Transitional Care Unit beds being added to the Selkirk Regional Health Centre last August.
“This is a tremendous amount of new capacity in a pretty short amount of time right here in Selkirk. Every single step of the way, my focus as health minister and the focus of our entire team of our government, is to improve health care and reduce wait times for you, Manitobans. Today’s announcement is a real step forward, and we’ll continue to do the work of fixing health care, building strong health-care teams across Manitoba to benefit all Manitobans no matter where they live,” said Asagwara.
Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson followed Asagwara.
“First off, I want to thank the healthcare workers, the doctors, the nurses, for everything they do to keep this hospital running successfully and smoothly. I truly want to thank the backstage workers, the workers that often don’t get the applause, they don’t get the accolades. They’re not here, but they’re the ones that keep the hospital also running smoothly. They keep the pathways open, they keep the lights on, they do the maintenance work, and without them, we wouldn’t have a hospital.,” he said.
Johannson then thanked the provincial government for adding these new surgeries to the hospital.
“It means so much to us, not only to Selkirk but for the surrounding area. We’re a hub now for St. Andrews, for St. Clements. We’re a hub for the Interlake. They come here now. They come here for a lot of things, but, I think, number one is they come here for medical care. Because as far as I’m concerned, this is the most beautiful hospital in Canada. I truly believe that. It may not be the largest but I always tell people, it’s beautiful,” said Johannson.
Record Photo by Katelyn Boulanger
Dr. Ed Buchel, provincial surgery specialty lead for Shared Health followed Joahnnson.
“This is, truthfully a very, very exciting landmark day for health care in our province, for surgery, for orthopedics, for the collaboration with a team from Selkirk and a team from Concordia, and the collaboration that we move forward with in surgery programs where we use data-driven decisions to support the health care in our province,” he said.
Buchel said that there is a waitlist for hip and knee surgeries in our province and that that waitlist is too long.
“Eight hundred more hips and knees is an astronomical number to increase at one site per year, ongoing. In our province, we have never had the ability to deliver the needed hip and knee arthroplasties on an annual basis. So, every year in the past, we were adding more people to a waitlist, more people were going out of province. With this announcement, with our increased capacity at our other hospitals, we will now nearly hit 7800 joints per year. That is what our population needs us to do on an annual basis,” said Buchel.
He explained that it would be impossible for waitlists to not exist but that this is a step forward.
“Yes, people will wait for surgery. They have to see our physicians, they have to get cleared from medicine. I’ve been asked this before, ‘Is the waitlist going to go to zero?’ The waitlist will never go to zero but we will not be adding people to the long waiters anymore,” said Buchel.
Buchel also said that this is a fundamental change.
“Waitlists should not exist. This is a prime example of how the province, our leadership in surgery and our government are working collaboratively together to make sure no one is left behind in surgery. I can go on and on about how great a day this is for us, but working together, this is it. This is as good as it gets,” said Buchel.
