The Manitoba government is releasing a series of financial audits of health authorities from the years 2019-20 to 2023-24 that reveal governance failures, a breakdown of communications and worsened patient care.
“From the beginning, our government has been focused on shifting the culture in health care,” said Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara. “We’ve tasked all levels of health-care leadership to redirect funding from the bloated bureaucracy to the front lines, address culture and prioritize patient care above all else. However, the audits reveal systemic government failures that have undermined morale for front-line workers while worsening the culture in our health-care system. We audited the service delivery organizations (SDOs) to establish an accountability structure that ensures resources are directed to the front lines of health care and the bedside of Manitobans. Revealing these results is another step we are taking to ensure we continue the process of fixing health care.”
In March 2024, the Manitoba government commissioned independent auditors to undertake a comprehensive review of all regional health authorities, except Southern Health-Santé Sud. Taken as a whole, the audits found a disconnect between the government’s direction to improve the culture in health care and the decisions made by health system leadership, noted the minister.
The audits found “…over time, the processes, approaches and culture appear to have shifted to a point where collaboration between organizations can, at times, appear to be at odds. This creates governance challenges in holding each SDO accountable to its mandate…” of delivering health care.
All but one health authority has consistently reported year-over-year deficits, the minister noted. These accumulated deficits are a symptom of a culture in health care that fails to allocate funds to the front lines, deprioritizes patients and ignores the voices of front-line health-care workers, the minister added. The reviews also found “there are significant challenges in how SDOs work with government to ensure both fiscal responsibility and the achievement of delivering high standards of clinical care across the populations they serve.”
The Manitoba government is committed to ensuring every Manitoban gets the care they need by investing into the public system, said Asagwara. Measures include curbing the use of nursing agencies by limiting contracts with private for-profit agencies, investing an additional $1 billion in health-care spending, staffing up the health-care system with over 870 net-new hires and adding hundreds of staffed beds to the system. More measures will be taken to address governance failures in health care, the minister said.
The audits can be read at manitoba.ca.
