Manitoba PC leader calls on Kinew to join forces to fix health care

Obby Khan says Manitobans are losing trust in the health-care system and he wants the premier to call a public inquiry. CTV’s Jon Hendricks has more.

Obby Khan is calling on Premier Wab Kinew to work together on fixing the health-care system following multiple deaths in hospital emergency rooms.

The PC leader posted a letter to the premier on social media Tuesday saying it is their duty as elected officials to restore Manitobans’ faith in a system that he said is not currently working.

Khan referenced four incidents in the last year – two of which have happened in the past month.

The first incident involved Stacey Ross, who went to the emergency room twice at St. Boniface Hospital. As her family told CTV News, the 55-year-old waited more than 12 hours on her first visit before being sent home. She was told her sickness was a virus.

She then returned days later by ambulance, waiting 11 hours before she was admitted.

Ross was diagnosed with pneumonia and shortly after went into cardiac arrest and died.

Her family believes Ross would still be alive if she didn’t have to wait so long for help.

The second incident involved 68-year-old Judy Burns, whose family told CTV News she went to St. Boniface Hospital after she was found delirious, not responsive, and pale.

She didn’t wait long to see a doctor but was first diagnosed with dehydration and diverticulosis.

Despite what she was told, Burns’ family still felt something was wrong and asked for her to receive an endoscopy.

Later that night, Burns’ family said she had a stroke and went into cardiac arrest. She was taken in for surgery, where a small ulcer was found in her small intestine.

She survived the surgery; however, she was placed in a medically induced coma. Her family said they were told she suffered internal bleeding all day.

Burns’ family took her off life support three days later. They believed their mother would still be here if she hadn’t been misdiagnosed.

“This is a pattern. There is a problem, and we need to find out what’s going wrong,” Khan said in his letter.

Officials are currently reviewing both cases to determine if they meet the criteria for a critical incident.

Khan feels things need to go a step further.

“By limiting the scope of these investigations to internal critical incident reviews you are failing to govern the best interests of Manitobans. Manitobans need a full public inquiry with the power and authority to get to the bottom of what is occurring with the health-care system that we all rely on,” Khan wrote.

He said political differences must be put to the side, so Manitobans don’t lose faith.

“Choosing not to fully investigate these systemic failures is not an option.”

‘Playing politics with people’s pain’

Speaking to CTV News Wednesday afternoon, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said now is not the time for Khan to be trying to score political points.

“There are processes in place right now that are going to inform what has really happened here. And so, I think it’s unfortunate to see the opposition leader play politics with a very real tragedy that’s happened to Manitobans,” said Asagwara.

“What they need to do is respect that there’s a process that’s happening before jumping to conclusions and really taking kind of an irresponsible approach in terms of what we’re dealing with.”

The minister said a critical incident investigation is important for situations like this, as it keeps the affected families informed about what happened, and then the government can take those findings and make improvements to prevent it from happening again.

They note the investigation is also made public, which eliminates the need for a public inquiry.

“I think the call by the opposition leader kind of shows his lack of understanding of what a critical incident investigation and review is,” they said.

“As a government, we have no interest in doing anything other than making sure Manitobans can trust those processes that are in place to protect them. And so again, right now, the leader of the opposition is, unfortunately, playing politics with people’s pain.”

Asagwara confirmed a critical incident investigation is underway for the incident involving Stacey Ross, and officials are still reviewing if one is needed for Judy Burns.