Trail Talking

At the beginning of July, many festivals were being held throughout the Dawson Trail constituency in celebration of Canada’s birthday. One of them being the Canada Day celebration in Richer, that is always packed with fun festivities to celebrate the holiday. The beginning of the month also lent itself to the Mini Car Town and Bike Safety Event that was held in Lorette. I was lucky enough to stop by and show my support for an event that teaches children about such an important topic, like road safety.

During the month, I was given the opportunity to present the community of Tache with provincial funding for the Tache Community Day Care Inc. They were given a $6,255 grant, that is going to be used to further the improvement of the Preschool Backyard Learning Environment. This is just one of the many community place grants that have been presented throughout the Dawson Trail constituency.

Our government is taking strides towards improving the lives of Manitobans. One way that we are currently doing this is by making improvements to our health-care system.

Since the launch of the Healing Our Health System project back in fall, we have already seen a 16 percent decrease in wait times. The average length of stay for in-patients has also decreased by 6.6 percent, and hospital and urgent-care wait times in Winnipeg were reduced by 19 percent between this past March and April.

This project will also include renovations to improve and expand the emergency departments at Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital. These upgrades will not only increase the capacity of the HSC and St. Boniface emergency departments, but improve their treatment spaces while concentrating resources – staffing and specialized equipment – to accommodate more patients and ensure timely access to the right care.

Some of the many other Healing Our Health System improvements will include a consolidation of mental health services at Victoria Hospital, to be complemented by resources at HSC and St. Boniface. An acute cardiac care unit is being established at St. Boniface Hospital, along with an addition of 16 beds for an in-patient cardiology unit. And HSC’s intensive care unit and the surgical section of that unit are expanding.

Working with our government, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and hospital officials are pacing all of these and other upcoming changes to ensure the right resources are in place to best serve patients.