From mysteinbach.ca
Steinbach MLA and Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced that the Manitoba government is acting on the findings of numerous studies of the province’s health-care system and will establish a provincial health organization (PHO). The new organization is intended to improve patient care and provide co-ordinated clinical and business support to the province’s regional health authorities.
“Manitoba’s health-care system is complex and siloed, with eight independent organizations each doing their own planning, standard setting and service delivery in relative isolation of one another,” said Goertzen. “This is neither efficient nor effective and has been identified as a major impediment to improved access to quality health care and our ability to manage costs in a sustainable way.”
The creation of the new organization, to be named Shared Health Services Manitoba, stems from recommendations in both the 2015 commissioned Provincial Clinical and Preventive Services Planning for Manitoba report by Dr. David Peachey (the ‘Peachey report’) and the 2016-17 KPMG Healthcare Sustainability and Innovation Review.
KPMG identified Manitoba’s health-care system and governance model as overly complex for a province of this size. Both that report and the Peachey report noted that while Manitoba’s government is responsible for overseeing the provincial health-care system, the province has never developed a provincial clinical and preventive services plan. This is something that is in existence in many other jurisdictions and is essential to supporting effective health human-resource planning, capital equipment investments, construction planning and other initiatives that should be co-ordinated provincewide, added Goertzen.
“Manitoba patients and their families should be the central focus of both acute care and long-term planning across the health-care system,” said Dr. David Peachey. “Manitobans will benefit from improved services, consistent standards of care across the province and the certainty that will result from a more integrated planning process.”
Goertzen announced the appointment of Dr. Brock Wright as the president and CEO of Shared Health Services Manitoba. Wright will lead the new organization and will oversee the transformation of the provincial health-care system.
“Manitoba has very strong leadership in all major clinical specialties and the creation of Shared Health Services Manitoba will allow us to work across the province to develop and implement safe, patient-centred, cost-effective models of care, to set provincial standards and to support regions in the recruitment and retention of medical staff,” said Wright. “We have a tremendous opportunity before us, the chance to realign and refocus our system to better meet the needs of Manitobans – reducing duplication, ensuring co-ordination and consistency and above all else, improving patient care and the overall sustainability of our health-care system.”
Read more here