Unions, PCs skeptical as Premier Wab Kinew promises end to long health-care waits in 2026

Some health-care leaders are questioning how Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew can confidently declare his government will end long waits for health-care services by the end of 2026.

In a year-end interview, Kinew was asked when his government will fix the long waits at emergency departments and for surgeries and diagnostic testing. He replied it would happen in 2026.

Kinew said the 3,500 net new health-care workers hired in the past two years has put Manitoba in the position to tackle long waits for medical care.

"People have been saying we need more staff, we've added more staff and we'll continue to add more," he said.

He explained his new health-care pledges from the November throne speech are possible because of the added resources.

"People are saying that we need to guarantee the patient experience, the safety for the patient, so we're bringing in a patient safety charter," he said.

"People said we need to end mandating [overtime] for nurses, we're going to start doing that. People have said we need to have staff-to-patient ratios, we're going to start doing that." 

He also pointed to a new initiative, launched at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, where patient discharges are now reviewed by a team of health-care professionals rather than individual staff. Kinew said the change has led to faster discharges.

But despite the premier's confidence, Kinew's promise to end long waits was met with skepticism from some health-care leaders.

"There seems to be some extreme confidence, but without the substance that I think is necessary to make statements that the health-care system and wait times and surgical wait times are going to be fixed this coming year," said Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.

"I have real concerns that the numbers don't align with a statement like that."

For example, median wait times at Winnipeg hospitals has trended upwards since the COVID-19 pandemic, now regularly exceeding 3.5 hours, while waits for several key surgeries — including hip and knee operations — have been rising this year.

The premier didn't explain what a fix to long wait times would look like.

Regardless, Linklater doesn't believe the health-care system has enough staff to achieve what Kinew wants.