Wait-times initiatives will get $5-M cash infusion

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is spending millions of dollars to reduce wait times in emergency rooms and for joint replacement surgeries.

During last fall's election campaign, the Progressive Conservatives promised to announce a wait-time strategy within 120 days of taking office.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Susan Sullivan provided details, saying the province would invest $5 million "to further the goals and objectives of our strategy."

$1.4 million of that total will go to orthopedic surgery — hip and knee joint replacements.

Newfoundland and Labrador is far behind national benchmarks in wait times for those surgeries, and the cash infusion is aimed at helping the province catch up.

Sixty people on the waitlist will get surgeries in the first year. New intake clinics will be set up in Gander and Corner Brook. And two new physiotherapists will be hired at Eastern Health.

Eastern Health CEO Vickie Kaminski says the hospital stay for joint replacement patients has already decreased by two days.

"Certainly the announcement today about physiotherapy being available to us on weekends and after hours will enhance that as well," Kaminski said.

The second part of Wednesday’s announcement dealt with reducing emergency room wait times.

$3.6 million has been earmarked to give patients more timely, better care.

Sullivan says $700,000 of that will go towards studying where bottlenecks exist in emergency rooms.

"We need that baseline data in order to be able to provide for the best-case scenario in providing the most efficient care that we possibly can," the health minister said.

This strategy won't solve the wait-times issue immediately; the province plans to roll it out over five years.