Liberals, NDP make health-care pitches in lead up to Manitoba's fall election

Health care is sure to be a top issue with many Manitoba voters in the upcoming provincial election, and on Friday it got the attention of two opposition parties vying for power.

The Manitoba Liberals and NDPmade separate election promises focused on health care, a sectorwhich hasbeen burdened withhigh wait times for care, staffing vacancies and overworked professionals.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, speaking on the legislature grounds while flanked by several partycandidates,unveiled several planks from his party's health-care platform.

If the Liberals are elected on Oct. 3, Lamontpledged new incentives to improve how health-care professionals are paid. Family physicians, nurse practitioners and all health professionals who support their work in clinics will be eligible for the new top-up. The extra paywill be reserved for those working in teams,in rural and remote areas and spending time withpatients with complex needs.

Lamont estimated the new payout would be in the range of $125 million to $175 million annually.

The Liberals would also create more physician training seats and build a new lecture hall at Health Sciences Centre to accommodateadditional students.

If elected, the party would revivedecade-old discussions to build amedical school in Brandon, Man. The Liberals say the new school would be acampus of the University of Manitoba and would focus on training people to work inrural and northern areas of the province.

There's also a commitment to ensure health professionals with international credentials are quickly certified to work in the province.

"I've heard in the last week of doctors who moved here, who have been rejected by the health system and have now moved to Ottawa or Quebec or B.C. where they can actually work," Lamont said, adding he's awareof two French-speaking physicians who recently left because they couldn't practice in Manitoba.

Lamont promised a fully-costed Liberal platform would be released before the writ, expected in either late August or early September, drops.

NDP promises medical school expansion

Meanwhile, the NDPcommitted to expanding the footprint of University of Manitoba's Bannatynecampus in Winnipeg, which leader Wab Kinew estimated would cost $150 million, should they be elected.

The bigger medical school wouldhave more room to train additional doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners,Kinew told reporters on the campus grounds.

"We're going to train the next generation and we're going to dramatically expand both the capacity and the ability to train those future health-care workers."

Kinew wouldn't estimate how many additional students would be trained to be doctors or nurse practitioners, adding his party wouldconsult with stakeholders on what's needed.

He said anNDP government would have a target of eventually creating 300 additional nursing seats, which is roughly equivalent to the number of nurses the Winnipeg area lost from 2016 to 2022, according to a freedom of information request obtained by the party.

We'd "work towardthat 300 net new seat target on the nursing side to help repair the damage that the PC's have caused," Kinew said.

"But one of the important things that we've got to understand, and this comes from nurses themselves, is that not only have we lost nurses from the front-lines under Heather Stefanson'stime as health minister and premier, but we've also lost the nurse educators."

An NDP government would build up the number ofeducators while the new facility is under construction, he said.

Other party commitments underwhelming: Tories

The Progressive Conservativegovernment said both announcements pale in comparison to the work the Tories are already doing on health care.

This includes a record amount of nearly $8 billion on health-care this year. The financial commitment includes$812 million in capital upgrades.

This week, the Tories announced it would double funding to its health-care recruitment and retention efforts with an additional $200 million.

A recent poll from Angus Reid, however, suggests many Manitobans aren't satisfied with the PC's handling of health care. Only17 per cent of survey respondents approved of the way the Tory governmenthas steeredthe file.

The Angus Reidpoll surveyed a representative, randomized sample of 515 Manitoba adults from May 30 to June 3. A sample of this size has the equivalent of a four-percentage-point margin of error, with a95-per-cent certainty it is accurate.