July 8, 2010

NDP BREAKS ER PROMISE

NDP BREAKS ER PROMISE

“They are going to ensure that it never happens again”: Oswald, September 2008

A statement of claim filed yesterday against Manitoba’s NDP government shows that Health Minister Theresa Oswald has failed to deliver on her promise to fix the ER problems that led to Brian Sinclair’s death, Progressive Conservative Health Critic Myrna Driedger said. Because of the Health Minister’s inaction, Gerald Briggs, 50, suffered a massive stroke following an unacceptably long wait in the Health Sciences Centre’s emergency room.

“Nearly two years have passed since Brian Sinclair died. It’s clear the Health Minister has broken her promise to fix the problems that resulted from a dangerously long ER wait,” Driedger said. “How can Manitobans have any confidence in their ER system with failures like this?”

Driedger is pointing to the Health Minister’s extensive and repeated comments following the Brian Sinclair death, where she insisted that the problem was unique and would be fixed, and assured Manitobans that “they are going to ensure it never happens again.” (September 23, 2008)

Driedger is calling on Selinger’s NDP to stop wasting money on a ballooning health care bureaucracy when emergency rooms are flat-lining. Progressive Conservatives have long advocated for an end to the wasteful spending that has seen the health care bureaucracy expand while staff and bed shortages plague Manitoba ERs.