High-profile Manitoba doctors endorse NDP's plan to fix province's health-care system

Several distinguished Manitoba doctors are throwing their support behind the NDP in the upcoming election.

At an NDP news conference Wednesday morning, five doctors spoke about how they've watched Manitoba's health-care system decline due to the PCgovernment's top-down approach to health care and consistent cutbacks. They saidit's time for change.

Dr. Brian Postl, the longtime former dean of the University of Manitoba's medical school, said while he's heard huge promises from the Manitoba PCs over the last year, he finds them hard to believe.

"The truth is, it just strikes me after seven years of putting the system to its knees, it's just a bit disingenuous and hard to trust," he said.

"[It's] adeathbed conversion that says, 'And now we're going to fix the mess that we created.' "

Other doctors spoke about witnessing the deterioration of the province's health-care system first-hand.

"I see on a daily basis what happens when there's lack of access to primary care and to specialist care. It causes undue suffering and, in some cases, premature death," said Dr. Eric Jacobsohn, an anesthesiologist, intensive care physician and professor at the University of Manitoba's Max Rady College of Medicine.

Jacobsohn said the Progressive Conservative government didn't listen to front-line health-care professionals about how to improve the system, instead bringing in outside consultants to make sweeping changes.

He said this approach is a major contributor to the chaos he sees in Manitoba's hospitals.

"Yes, they saved money, but they imploded the access of care and they imploded the health-care system," Jacobsohn said.

Dr. Dhali Dhaliwal, Dr. Lesley Garber andDr. Kendiss Olafsonalso spoke at Wednesday's news conference, lending their support to the NDP, while Dr. Jillian Horton sent in a video message.

During the campaign, the NDP have pledged to spend more than $500 million to hire 400 more physicians in the province, 300 nurses across Winnipeg within two years and 300 more in rural and northern Manitoba within their first term, and upwards of 100 more home-care workers.

• Read full coverage of the 2023 Manitoba election here

They've also promised to reopen three emergency rooms in Winnipeg and open five neighbourhood health clinics in Manitoba.

You can read a full list of all the parties' health-care pledges so farhere.