News Releases

News Release - Manitoba

March 8, 2018

Clinical Teams Finalized to Lead Development of Provincial Health Plan, RFP Issued for Further Planning Work



Progress continues on the development of Manitoba’s first provincial clinical and preventive services plan as Shared Health finalizes the composition and governance of clinical working groups to guide the work, Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced today.

“The provincial clinical teams are made up of health-care providers with varied professional backgrounds and experience in health-care delivery across rural, urban and northern Manitoba communities,” said Goertzen.  “I’m confident these health system leaders will create a plan that will strengthen services across the province, ensure consistent reliable care for Manitobans and improve access for patients across Manitoba.”

Manitoba is developing a multi-year plan, informed by the experience of Manitoba clinical leaders, relevant expert studies of the health system, qualitative and quantitative data identifying the province’s population health needs both now and in the future, as well as evidence of patient outcomes across the province.

“Many expert studies and reviews of Manitoba’s health system have pointed to the absence of a provincial clinical and preventive services plan as a contributing factor to our fragmented health-care services, lack of consistency across the province and poor national rankings across a number of health-care related categories including emergency department and diagnostic wait times,” said Dr. Brock Wright, president and chief executive officer, Shared Health.  “This integrated approach to planning – based on population needs and patient outcomes – gives Manitoba a unique opportunity to transform and improve how we deliver care both now and into the future.”

The teams will be co-led by a combination of urban, rural and northern clinical leaders, and include membership from each regional health authority as well as representatives with expertise in Indigenous health.  Each member will apply the knowledge of their individual profession, patient population and local environment as the teams develop and endorse evidence-based,
patient-focused and cost-effective models of care that will improve health services for Manitobans, the minister said.

Planning will span organizational and geographic boundaries, and will engage patients, health-care providers and communities.

“Significant investments have been made over many years in our health-care system, yet we have struggled to provide consistent, co-ordinated and timely access to quality health care across Manitoba,” said Lanette Siragusa, clinical and preventive services planning and oversight lead for Shared Health.  “A provincial plan will ensure care is both equitable and accessible, with a focus on models of care that meet the needs of our patients, that consider the geographic distribution of our population and that allow for both local access to core services and referred access to specialty services.”

Planning and analysis will occur in four overlapping waves, with the provincial plan expected to be complete within 12 months of the initial launch, the minister noted.  Each wave will focus on in-depth analysis of three specific speciality areas and will:
•    identify and define the population profile served by the service,
•    prioritize the health service gaps or population health needs, and
•    develop and analyze options for future service delivery or models of care.

Wave One will focus on the following specialty areas (bios attached):
•    emergency, critical care and acute medicine – co-led by Dr. Alecs Chochinov, Dr. Bojan Paunovic, Dr. Eberhard Renner and Dr. Edward Tan;  
•    primary health and community services – co-led by Dr. Jose Francois and Dr. Harsahil Singh; and
•    women’s health – co-led by Dr. Mary-Jane Seager and Dr. Chantal Frechette.

Wave One will also support and inform decision-making related to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Phase Two clinical consolidation, as well as the strategic transformation of health-care delivery in rural and northern Manitoba.

Recommendations will suggest the need for new or enhanced services or changes to how and where services are provided, and will outline the financial needs, technological requirements and the human resources required for successful implementation.

“Provincial planning will enable strategic decisions to be made across the entire health system, enabling long-term planning around education, staffing and recruitment and retention efforts, as well as investments in the supply chain, equipment and infrastructure,” said Siragusa.  “Best practices from across Canada and around the globe, combined with the experience and knowledge of Manitoba’s own clinical leaders, will ensure we are able to adapt to changing population needs and prioritize resources to ensure safe, accessible and consistent care for all Manitobans.”

To further this work, Diagnostic Services Manitoba, which will become Shared Health effective April 3, has issued a request for proposals for professional support services.

The successful candidate will have experience in the implementation of evidence-based health system changes that enable seamless care for patients across acute, primary and community services and models of care that allows health-care providers to deliver care at their full scope of professional practice.

More details on the areas of focus and membership of clinical teams in future planning waves will be made available when Shared Health begins operations.

The creation of Shared Health and the development of a provincial clinical and preventive services plan are initiatives within Manitoba’s larger health system transformation, being overseen by the Transformation Leadership Team.  More information on the health system transformation can be found at www.gov.mb.ca/rightcare/strengthening/index.html.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION ATTACHED




Backgrounder
BG-Shared_Health_Clinical_Planning-HL.pdf - https://www.gov.mb.ca/asset_library/en/newslinks/2018/03/BG-Shared_Health_Clinical_Planning-HL.pdf