A pair of Niverville siblings, Colleen Dyck and Daniel Fewster, have been making some political headway in terms of enacting a new healthcare policy called Debbie’s Law.

After their first press conference on March 12, Dyck and Fewster learned that Manitoba’s Minister of Health, Uzoma Asagwara, had announced a healthcare directive heralding many of the tenets of the proposed Debbie’s Law.

But the duo says this recent progress still isn’t enough.

“What we’ve understood is that a directive is great and it’s no small thing, but it isn’t party-proof,” Dyck says. “You can have directives. But then the next party gets elected and they can do away with them. There’s no teeth to it in that you can’t really protect it long-term.”

So on Wednesday, April 23, the siblings found themselves meeting with the press once again in the hopes of encouraging the provincial government to go further.

Debbie’s Law is a healthcare policy developed by the siblings with help from a nonprofit Canadian public policy think tank, SecondStreet.org. It’s a response to the heartbreak the pair experienced last fall when they lost their mother Debbie to heart failure while she waited on a surgical wait list. She was only 69.

If legislated, Debbie’s Law would compel local health authorities to ensure that patients are informed when life-saving treatment cannot be provided within the medically recommended timeframe. Doctors and specialists would then be required to advise alternatives, such as out-of-province treatment.

When speaking to the media, Fewster focuses on a couple of key points that are missing from the government’s current directive.

First, he says, patients waiting for surgery should be given a journey map outlining each step of their care process so they can track gaps or delays in their treatment. This should include guidance on what to do and who to contact when this happens.

Second, the wording shouldn’t be vague and instead provide clear direction on what is an appropriate wait time for different levels of health acuity.

“These additions would empower patients, reduce uncertainty, and ensure accountability within the system,” Fewster says. “We believe these changes are not just desirable but essential to improving patient outcomes.”

Dyck furthered that same sentiment.

“We understand why the current government would like to keep surgeries in Manitoba, particularly the life-saving ones, and understand with the stroke of a pen this won’t be solved overnight,” says Dyck. “But it is our sincere belief that legislating Debbie’s Law is the very least that can be done for a patient’s journey through a broken system. Until that system is overhauled, changed, and patched up, people will fall through the cracks.”

According to Dyck, the healthcare system in the EU is vastly more effective than in Canada because most of their healthcare policies are firmly legislated, making them difficult to dismantle.

Since the initial press conference, the siblings have been invited to meet with the administration of the St. Boniface Hospital, where their mother’s surgery should have taken place.

“They are doing a full inquiry into what happened with Mom,” says Dyck. “Something went wrong with Mom’s file and they [are investigating it].”

Last week, Dyck and Fewster also got a personal audience with Asagwara.

“To her credit, I think she is trying to understand what happened [with our case],” Dyck says. “She was very curious, wanting to hear how we are doing and wanting to hear our story. We don’t think she was trying to placate us, but she was not willing to move it to legislation.”

Legislature Debates Debbie’s Law

Thanks to individuals like Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative healthcare critic, a bill legislating Debbie’s Law has been submitted to the Legislature and seconded by Ron Schuler, MLA for Springfield-Ritchot.

Schuler agrees with Dyck that a directive doesn’t have much power on its own. He likens it to a workplace situation where the boss makes a general recommendation on workplace behaviour rather than creating clear written policy.

“A directive can often feel like it’s just a political response,” Schuler says. “But then there’s no forms, no staff put to it, there’s no money assigned to it. It’s like, ‘This is basically what we should do.’ Whereas legislation says, ‘This is what we must do.’”

As well, he adds, a directive doesn’t have the power to require the healthcare system to send patients out of province if they cannot provide surgery in a timely manner.

On April 24, the bill was debated in the Legislature. Thankfully, after some rigorous debate, it unanimously passed second reading.

From here, it is eligible to move to committee for ongoing debate. If the committee votes in favour of passing the law, it will move back to the Legislature for a third and final reading.

Unfortunately, Schuler says, a request made by Cook for the committee to prioritize the bill has been denied by the government.

“And now for the bad news,” Schuler says. “The government doesn’t ever have to call it to committee, [in which case] it dies. It’s the government that now must send it to committee and that must give it third reading.”

This is where the public can get involved, he adds, by lobbying the NDP government to see this bill through. Letters, emails, and phone calls to the premier’s office are all effective ways of doing that.

“They track [these public communications] in the premier’s office and at some point in time they say, ‘It’s getting to be painful. We want to do it. Let’s put it through third reading and pass it,’” says Schuler. “People getting engaged and lobbying their government officials has a huge impact.”

If the bill gets to committee, Schuler says that the public can get involved once again. It’s during a committee session that the public is invited to register as delegates to speak in favour or against the bill.

For some bills, he says, hundreds of people show up to make presentations. Members of the public can watch for advertisements in the news when a committee decides to entertain public delegations. People can also reach out to Schuler, Cook, or the clerk’s office for information on how to register.

Regarding Debbie’s Law, Schuler stands behind the legislation.

“There was a big judicial case that happened years ago in which the judge said that justice delayed is justice denied,” Schuler says. “I believe that belongs in healthcare as well. Healthcare delayed is healthcare denied.”

As for whether the government should be responsible to send patients out of province if they can’t guarantee timely care, he says that the governing Progressive Conservatives did just that while working to clear the COVID-19 pandemic surgical backlog.

The Democratic Process

Dyck and Fewster have attended a number of legislative question periods, as well as the Debbie’s Law debate.

It can be disheartening to sit in the audience, Dyck says, when they mostly witness political grandstanding between the parties. She describes the atmosphere as toxic, cold, and sometimes puerile.

“We’re really pushing them to collaborate,” Dyck says. “This is not a partisan issue. The world seems to be focussed on fear… and divisiveness right now. Can you guys not lead the charge with something collaborative for the sake of everyone you represent?”

But to Schuler, these legislative skirmishes are what make Canada’s democratic process effective and even enviable.

“It makes for a strong democracy,” Schuler says. “It’s got to be a competitive and tough environment because if the government knows they have a tough, competitive opposition, they’ll be very careful on what legislation they bring forward.”

He provides the example of China, a country in which parliamentary debate simply doesn’t happen Similarly, he says, in the U.S., the president is rarely challenged.

“Our ‘civil war’ is in question period,” says Schuler. “That’s where we take each other on. We don’t take each other on with knives and guns and that kind of stuff. We take each other on with passion and emotion and words, and we challenge each other. Our system produces very strong politicians.”

Niverville Man Waits for Life-Saving Surgery

Niverville residents John and Liesa Funk are currently going through something eerily similar to what Debbie Fewster experienced last fall. John is on the wait list for a double bypass surgery.

Like Fewster, his initial visit to the doctor was followed by a rapid succession of diagnostic appointments.

After that, the process seemed to stall.

It’s now been three months since John met with his angiogram specialist and he’s now dangerously close to the top-end date in which he was told his surgery should take place.

At this time, he has yet to be given a surgery date.

His wife Liesa has been his medical advocate so far. Having worked as an EMS for 12 years, she’s familiar with the severity of his condition and flaws in the medical system. She’s on the phone regularly, trying to get answers.

“We’ve been told [by health staff] again and again, ‘It’s the system, not the doctors,’” says Liesa. “I said to the nurse, [Debbie] was my friend and my neighbour that passed away waiting for surgery. She’s my age. Now my husband’s in the same situation and I’d prefer if he didn’t have to die, waiting.”

The only definitive instruction they’ve been given so far is to head to the emergency department if John feels any symptoms, such as shortness of breath.

In recent weeks, they did just that. When they arrived at the hospital, he was triaged fairly quickly. And then they waited.

“We sat there for just over 14 hours,” Liesa says. “We [finally] saw a surgeon after 11:30 p.m. and it was only because we [got im-patient]. That was very disheartening. John says, ‘I’m not doing that again!’”

Since then, they have seen the surgeon who will eventually perform his surgery. Even so, Liesa says, the nurse warned them that summer vacation time is coming for surgical staff, seemingly as a way to warn them that their wait may be far from over.

Liesa has since been in contact with Ried Love, the director of cardiac sciences in Manitoba, and he agreed with her that patient communication needs improvement.

It was Love, though, who was the first to inform her that John’s surgery was listed as elective.

“Elective?” Liesa asks. “We’re not choosing to have this surgery. That’s almost like a slap in the face. But he said, ‘That’s just how it’s categorized.’”

Because of people like Debbie and John, and countless others waiting for life-saving surgery in Manitoba, Dyck and Fewster are not ready to give up the fight.

“There’s a lot of other countries that are doing better than us,” says Dyck. “I don’t know how much we can make a ripple effect, but we just know we’re going to give it the college try. We’re going to keep showing up and keep pushing.”