Manitoba’s Opposition PC Party has introduced a bill that would require health-care providers to inform patients with serious conditions about their expected wait time for treatment.
The Progressive-Conservative Party’s health critic MLA Kathleen Cook introduced Bill 226, also known as “The Health System Governance and Accountability Amendment Act (Reporting When Timely Care Not Available),” on April 23. It’s a move the PCs say will “close critical accountability gaps” in the provincial health-care system.
The PCs currently hold 20 seats in the Manitoba legislature, while the NDP have 34 seats.
The bill is dubbed “Debbie’s Law” after Debbie Fewster, a Manitoba grandmother who died in 2024 while awaiting surgery. She was told last summer she required heart surgery within a three-week timeframe and died during Thanksgiving weekend in October without having received the necessary treatment….