A month after suspending Manitoba’s Surgical and Diagnostic Services Restoration Task Force, the NDP government is abolishing it.

Uzoma Asagwara, Manitoba’s health minister, says attention and resources are being focused on public health care delivery.

We are aware of the scale of the task before us and cannot solve everything at once, but the work is already in full swingsays Uzoma Asagwara.

Uzoma Asawara assures that patients to be cared for under the direction of the Task Force and those on the waiting list will receive the planned procedures and treatments without further delay while the activities of the Task Force end.

Nobody is left behind.

We want Manitobans to know that as we unravel this [groupe de travail]We will work more directly with health leaders across the province to ensure continued innovation and investment in capacity here in Manitobaemphasizes Uzoma Asawara.

Shared Health will assume leadership of the current task force structure during the dissolution.

Three new projects

Without specifying how much the province plans to save through the deconstruction, Uzoma Asagwara says the sum will be used for three new projects aimed at building long-term capacity for surgical needs and reducing waiting times for diagnosis.

The new projects are as follows:

• Setting up a mobile phone serviceMRI in the Northern Health region

• The increase in the number of surgical procedures in hospital Gracefulness

• The expansion of spine surgery programs

Spinal surgeries are among the procedures with the longest waiting times in the province, says Uzoma Asawara.DInMany people suffer from pain for years waiting for surgery.

To make this possible, equipment in Brandon is being upgraded minimally invasive spine surgeries in this part of the province. In Winnipeg, this last program is implemented in the hospital Concordia and the capacity of the Rapid Access Surgery Clinic in the Center for Health Sciences will be increased.

Under the previous Progressive Conservative government, the practice of sending patients out of the province for surgery came under scrutiny. Some of these were ordered by the working group with the aim of clarifying delays.

Manitobans deserve to have surgery and diagnostic testing here in Manitoba, and our public health system can and will provide themremarks Uzoma Asagwara, adding that there are currently thirteen MRI in the province, but none in the Northern Health region, which will change with this announcement.

This will bring diagnostic services closer to home for many northerners who have faced long wait times and sometimes very complicated travel plans. There will still be a lot of diagnostic work to be done in the north, but this is a big step towards justiceexplains Uzoma Asagwara.