Financial audits of Manitoba’s health authorities between 2019 and 2024 show worsened patient care and breakdowns in governance and communications, according to the Government of Manitoba. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced the findings at a news conference on Wednesday, saying the audits show that systemic failures have impacted the morale of frontline workers. “Let me be clear, the lesson here isn’t about cutting funding…It is to establish an accountability structure that ensures resources are directed where they need to be,” Asagwara said. The audits began last year when the province commissioned independent auditors to review all regional health authorities, except for Southern Health-Santé Sud. According to the province, the review found a disconnect between the government’s direction to improve the culture in health care and the decisions being made by leadership. The audit also found there are challenges in how health authorities work with the government to ensure fiscal responsibility and deliver high standards of care. “At the time of the audit, board members indicated that historical budgeting processes did not allow for a collaborative effort between the board, management, and the government,” said the review of Shared Health. “Management and board member turnover impacted the consistency of the information they received.” Asagwara added that all but one health authority has consistently reported year-over-year deficits, which the government says is the sign of systems that deprioritize patients, fail to allocate funds to the front lines, and ignore the voices of health-care workers. The audit into the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) said the health authority is regularly operating at a deficit, adding that a combination of deficits and the timing of cash-flow payments led to the reliance on a line of credit for operating needs. “If the disease in our health-care system is a culture of dysfunction, then the symptom of that disease is fiscal mismanagement,” the health minister said. “Over and over again, health authorities are spending their resources on the wrong things.” On Tuesday, the WRHA and Shared Health both announced new interim chief executive officers. Jane Curtis will be taking over at the WRHA, while Dr. Chris Christodoulou will be taking on the role at Shared Health. “I’m confident that these two exemplary Manitobans will embrace the new culture in health care our government has been elected to create,” Asagwara said. Asagwara said the province is committed to ensuring Manitobans get the care they need through investments in the health-care system, which include limiting the use of nursing agencies, investing an additional $1 billion in health-care spending, and increasing staffing levels. Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative’s health critic, Cook said the audits were released to give the NDP a reason for any unpopular decision they will have to make about health-care in the coming months. “They provide cover for the NDP to do what they’ve done since they were elected, which is pointing fingers backwards and blaming the previous government,” she said. “Now, nearly a year and a half into their tenure, they continue to blame the previous government for their own failures and their own failures to keep their own promises.” Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health-Care Professionals, said the government needs to increase funding to help address issues. “There won’t be any real culture change in health care until the staffing crisis is addressed, and that’s not happening fast enough,” Linklater said in a statement. “Funding is still lagging after years of austerity and cuts, and Manitoba can’t ‘lean manage’ its way out of the current staffing crisis.” The audits can be found online.
