Staffing crisis causing unacceptably long and stressful waits for patients
Most patients, when told they will have to wait up to a year for a scan of the heart, are likely to be quite concerned, fearful and anxious. It’s not a surprise they would be prepared to flee the province for an echocardiogram and pay out-of-pocket.
“Current wait times for elective echocardiograms (echos) at primary cardiac sonography sites (HSC and St. Boniface Hospital) are up to a year. Both facilities have cardiology staff vacancies and are contributing to the rising number of patients seeking diagnostic tests at private clinics,” said Jason Linklater, President, MAHCP.
“Accepted benchmarks for elective echocardiograms are 30 days or less, urgent scans in seven days or less, and emergency scans within 24 hours. Manitoba is seeing significantly higher wait times for these procedures than other jurisdictions and wait times have been stuck at this level for years. Manitobans deserve better.”
Linklater was quoted today in a Winnipeg Free Press article profiling Winnipegger Max Johnson, who recently travelled to a private clinic in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and paid $350 for an echo following a blood clot diagnosis and cardiology referral.
“We have an opportunity here to build capacity within the public system. And, certainly, that’s what we believe is the best approach towards solving this problem; it’s more cost-effective, there’s greater accountability, and it provides better connected and co-ordinated care, which really matters for patients and providers.”
– jason linklater, mahcp president
Echos are the primary non-invasive imaging modality for assessment of heart anatomy and function. The test plays an essential role in all facets of cardiovascular care, and family doctors or cardiologists can order non-urgent echocardiograms for many reasons. For example, they might hear a heart murmur or receive a high blood pressure reading, and wonder if the patient’s heart has expanded. Or, a patient may complain of unexplained shortness of breath or other symptoms which may point to heart disease. A post-op patient may need a heart scan as a follow-up from a surgical intervention, such as a bypass or valve replacement.
Echos are very important tests, and Shared Health has a troubling pattern of ignoring growing wait lists for diagnostic tests, and if they do anything in an attempt to address the problem, it’s usually to outsource or add more work without adding more resources. MAHCP has been asking Shared Health to hire more cardiac sonographers to meet growing demand and bring down wait times, and to offer these tests at more sites to make them more accessible for patients.
“We have an opportunity here to build capacity within the public system. And, certainly, that’s what we believe is the best approach towards solving this problem; it’s more cost-effective, there’s greater accountability, and it provides better connected and co-ordinated care, which really, really matters for patients and providers.”
There are currently 30 cardiac sonographers across Manitoba, and four training seats.
“Shared Health needs to start offering incentives to attract and retain rural staff, including specialized staff like sonographers.”