Two years and waiting for surgery

Cheryl Grewar has now waited two years for the spinal neurosurgery doctors originally said she’d get within three to six months.

Grewar is in constant pain and uses a walker so she doesn’t fall — something that happened to her in December and left her with a broken ankle.

“My orthopedic doctor said the injury could have been avoided had I already had surgery,” said the 62-year-old Winnipeg woman.

“The doctors have done their jobs and got me into the neurosurgery clinic at Health Sciences Centre, but what they are up against is these wait lists. They won’t tell you where you are on the wait list, but during a recent call they now call it the ‘enhanced’ wait list.

“I wonder if, at my age, if I will ever be next on the list?”

Her daughter, Shona, said it is particularly upsetting because the family, which lives in Tuxedo, helped flip the traditionally Tory seat by voting NDP during the recent byelection because they believed the new governing party could fix health care.

She said her family was given hope last April, when the government announced it was aiming to speed up spinal surgeries by recruiting three surgeons, but “it doesn’t appear to have made any difference yet.

“So far there has been no action and empty announcements and promises with no real change. Why are Manitobans being forced to endure unnecessary pain and suffering? Why is out-of-province care not being seriously considered in cases like my mother’s where wait list issues are so severe?

“While I understand they want to build surgical capacity at home, the people that need help now, before these systems, resources and contracts are in place are suffering more than ever.”

Shona said the average wait time for neurosurgery across the country was 44 weeks in 2023.

“My mom is approaching the 104-week mark.”

In a statement Thursday, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said their office has now been in touch with Grewar.

“We are working to get a resolution,” said Asagwara. “This situation is heartbreaking and must be extremely frustrating for the patient and their family.

“Unfortunately, we hear these stories too often after seven and a half years of cuts to surgical capacity in Manitoba. The reality is the previous government spent millions of dollars giving patients false hope that out-of-province and out-of-country surgeries at private clinics was a sustainable solution.”

A Shared Health spokesman said Manitobans have faced longer wait times for spinal surgery because of an aging population and lack of co-ordinated provincial spinal care program.

“While the most acute patients continue to receive surgery in a timely manner, lower-acuity patients tend to wait longer and can be bumped for higher priority cases,” the spokesman said.

“We can appreciate the frustration this can cause for lower-acuity patients who are living in pain and their loved ones.”

The spokesman said the three surgeons hired — two for Winnipeg and one for Brandon — as well as a new provincial spine program creating centralized wait lists and co-ordinated levels of care, will see more patients get surgery faster.

“We expect these improvements will, over time, shorten waits for spinal patients.”

Grewar, a self employed accountant, had the same surgery back in 2001 and was told then it would probably give her relief for about 20 years.

“It is not a complete shock that I’m here now,” she said.

Cheryl said she is in constant pain, but her greatest fear is falling because the rare condition she has will suddenly, and with no warning, stop her right leg from working and keeping her upright.

“I broke my ankle once — I don’t want to break anything else,” she said. “I used to golf and ride my bike but now I’m terrified to ride a bike because I could fall.

“I don’t want to break anything else. I hope I get the surgery soon.”

[email protected]