Thread by @ChrisRWiebe

Even before the pandemic hit, the MB PCs have been cutting and privatizing healthcare. Here is a thread about some of those changes. The tl;dr version is in the article below. (1/15)

The devastation of Manitoba: An autopsy of Pallister’s austerity regime canadiandimension.com/articles/view/…

Privatization and cuts go hand in hand with the MB PCs. The architect of many of these cuts was Kelvin Goertzen. After slashing healthcare, he moved on to ed and tried doing the same with Bill 64. He said that he isn’t sure if the state should be paying for such services. (2/15)

In 2019, before covid, 3 out of 6 ERs in Winnipeg were closed (the Vic, Seven Oaks and Concordia). 5 out 6 Quickcare centres were closed. Misericordia Health Care Centre was also closed in 2017. The latter had a huge impact on inner city residents. (3/15) cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

It doesn’t stop there. They were just getting started. The closing of the Mature Women’s Centre in mid-2017 was described by the centre’s medical director as a “catastrophic blow to the provision of innovative health care for the women of Manitoba.”(4/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

An important medical education centre, the St. Boniface Family Centre, that opened in 1973, was also shut down in 2019. Very short sighted seeing how it was later revealed that we need these teaching centres to address shortages. (5/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

All of these cuts were rationalized as removing unnecessary bloat from the Healthcare system. In 2018, the WRHA was cut another $83M. Another $36M was taken out, including staffing costs. Shared Health was unveiled as a new way to handle healthcare.(6/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

CancerCare capital expansion projects were cut by $300M. Personal care home beds were only initially expanded by the PCs to less than 300 (they promised 1200 in their election campaign). Diabetes strip coverage was cut for Manitobans - devastating. (7/15)

globalnews.ca/news/3535144/c…

Fees went up for seniors in adult care programs, nearly doubling. Medication for seniors ballooned. Here is an example of a 74 year old man with Parkinson’s who had to pay over $1200 more a month for meds now that weren’t covered. (8/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

Costs for transportation for seniors run by WRHA went up. Rural programs were slashed. Universal healthcare for international students was cut, making these students pay over $2000 more in insurance costs, or they have to go home for care. (9/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

What replaced many of these cuts? Privatization. Just after being elected in 2016, the health minister started talking about privatizing CTs and MRIs. Physiotherapy and occupational therapy started to be privatized in 2017. (10/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

A mixed model home care program was introduced. 2/3 of the almost $16M in funding went to private companies. Goertzen was quoted as saying that he didn’t care about “who is providing me that support has a union card." This was the plan all along. (11/15)

winnipegfreepress.com/local/new-home…

More layoffs in healthcare. Ambulance funding was frozen. Unions were antagonized. The nurses union finally came to a deal after 7 years. While all these cuts were going on, during a pandemic, frontline healthcare staff were also fighting the gov. (12/15)

google.ca/amp/s/winnipeg…

So whenever someone claims that there are no receipts for these cuts, we have the receipts. Leading up to the pandemic, healthcare was slashed, and an inquiry will find that this played a role in our dismal response. Things were bad before covid. (13/15)

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

One of the tragic aspects of the pandemic is that Pallister used this as an excuse to further cut the public sector. These cuts were ideological in nature, and a form of disaster capitalism. Destroy the public sector, using covid as an excuse. (14/15)

canadiandimension.com/articles/view/…

It remains to be seen if Stefanson will have the same legacy as Pallister. Since she was Health Minister and part of his cabinet for some of Pallister’s Premiership, she has to share some of the blame for these cuts. We won’t forget in 2023. We have the receipts. #mbpoli (15/15)