State of care

Medical aid in Manitoba, now and forever

Ayame Ulrich

When we listen to the provincial candidates’ platforms, we must listen carefully to their plans for health care. For the present and for the future, this crucial issue looms large.

The sore state of our provincial health care system need not be harped on. But besides the prevalence of hallway medicine and other travesties, there are more subtle deficiencies in Manitoban health care.

For example, we don’t have even one nurse practitioner-led clinic yet in this province. Ontario alone will have 25 nurse practitioner clinics by 2012, as per a provincial mandate.

Nurse practitioner clinics offer a valuable alternative to the traditional doctor-patient system, offering primary care to patients who may not otherwise be able to obtain a family doctor because of their age or failing health. The clinical approach also tends to increase the quality of patient care.

This is just one example of what could be expanded on in our ailing province.

Hugh McFadyen has said numerous times that the NDP is wrong on health care, and that he has a plan to put things right. But convincing the public may be an uphill battle, as the NDP is making much of the health care cuts that were made under Gary Filmon in the 1990s – the impact of which are still felt – when McFadyen was Filmon’s senior advisor.

But then, every party is haunted by its past. 

I certainly can’t claim to be up on every debate that has happened thus far, but I can tell you this: I went to the PCs official website to find out exactly what McFadyen was promising in terms of health care.

There were two paragraphs: one disparaging our current health care system, and the other making vague allusions to the patient coming first. There was also a longer version of this tirade elsewhere on the website. Then there was a link to a more detailed account of the PCs’ health care plan. I clicked on the link; it was dead.

The Liberals’ official website blames the NDP for allowing diabetes, particularly Type 2 diabetes, to become an epidemic.

Is it just me who thinks this is a little harsh?

Unless I’ve been living under a rock, I’m pretty sure that the NDP doesn’t go around feeding chocolate treats to young children, bringing McDonald’s to kindergarten classrooms and stuffing kids with McChicken sauce.

I think it’s tough to blame our health care system for a disease that is contracted based on lifestyle.

In any case, the Liberals plan to allot $4.6 million to go toward fighting this disease.

The NDP website lists some stock health care talking points, including hiring more doctors and providing families in remote communities with health care. Whether or not these promises pan out is anyone’s guess.

Health care is an issue that inherently involves looking forward. So are these plans sustainable? For the most part we can’t be sure, as the rhetoric overrides the truth, and the game of politics obscures any possible honest conversation.

Are our leaders really thinking with an eye to the long term, or is the goal to promise dazzling feats of health care to win an election, and then pick up the pieces in the wake?

As usual, I have more questions than answers. 

Trevor Graumann is The Uniter’s comments editor.

Published in Volume 66, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 22, 2011)

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