“We will not hire consultants to tell us how to privatize health care. Instead we will listen to the people on the front lines”

WINNIPEG — As part of his key commitment to fixing Brian Pallister’s health care crisis, Wab Kinew would stop Pallister’s plans to privatize the Cadham Provincial Laboratory and allow people with money to jump the queue for diagnostic imaging. 

These plans were outlined in the provincial government’s “Update on Health System Transformation” released on Aug 29. Under “next steps” it lists “completion of a business case related to Cadham Provincial Laboratory...private laboratory services and private diagnostic imaging.” 

Increasing the use of private diagnostic imaging is a move toward two-tier health care because it allows people to jump the queue, but only if they have money. Pallister’s privatization of diagnostic services is of a piece with the privatization of home care. And it is just an example of what is to come. 

“We will not privatize health care. We will not hire consultants to tell us how to privatize health care. Instead we will listen to the people on the front lines,” said Kinew. He stood with front-line health care workers represented by the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals. 

The Cadham Provincial Laboratory is the main provincial lab, which provides services to Cancer Care and other agencies, and is responsible for monitoring public-health issues such as outbreaks of STBBIs. It has helped protect the health of Manitobans since it was founded in 1897. Its first Director was Dr. Gordon Bell.