Poor performance by the WRHA needs more drastic steps

When I saw this morning how badly the WRHA continues to manage our emergency rooms in Winnipeg, my reaction was - How on earth is it that the problems in our Emergency Rooms in Winnipeg continue?   A reduction of 3 minutes in waiting times over many months is simply not good enough.

We have had numerous reports and a number of deaths in our emergency rooms - including Dorothy Madden, John Klassen and Brian Sinclair, among others - and yet the WRHA continues an inadequate approach to managing emergency rooms.  The leadership in government (the Minister of Health) and the leadership in the WRHA (the President and Vice Presidents) need a salary cut ‘wakeup call’.   I called today for Selinger to reduce salaries of the Minister of Health and WRHA senior management on a monthly basis until this situation is resolved.

Reports today show the WRHA paid close to $250,000 to the City of Winnipeg for ambulances waiting excessive lengths of time.  This indifference to taxpayer dollars and the WRHA’s inadequate delivery of service should result in monthly ten per cent reductions in the salaries until the situation is resolved, with the first 10 per cent reduction happening immediately.

If the situation with emergency room waiting times is not resolved in one month, reductions in the salaries of the Minister of Health and of WRHA senior management should be 20 per cent in one month's time (by the second month), and be 30 per cent in two months time (the third month). This situation must be fully resolved so that ambulance patients do not have to wait excessively anymore.

The salary of the WRHA’s President and Chief Executive Officer Arlene Wilgosh is $267,140. The salaries of the WRHA’s six vice presidents are as follows: Brock Wright, $334,556; Lori Lamont, $178,515; Catherine Cook, $227,693; Réal Cloutier, $194,091; Paul Kochan, $196,595; and John Van Massenhoven, $162,078.

The WRHA burdens the City of Winnipeg with soaring paramedic costs to create the optics of reduced wait times because they are too incompetent to implement real solutions. Perhaps this disgraceful approach to management will finally turn around with drastic salary decreases to the Minister of Health and the WRHA’s senior management.