Wait times for non-urgent diagnostic tests have grown even longer in Manitoba as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The wait time for an ultrasound at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre right now is over a year — while back in January, that wait time was only three months, according to the province's latest wait time reports.
The increased wait times are being noted across all of Manitoba’s health regions — after the province cancelled non-urgent diagnostics for a six-week period to control the spread of the virus.
Prior to the pandemic, the province had been working to reduce wait times in a number of areas, however, the COVID situation appears to set back some of that progress.
A Shared Health spokesperson explains the effort to ramp up services in May has still not been able to return operations to 100% capacity.
The spokesperson added that the Prairie Mountain Health region experienced some staff turnover in recent months, which impacted ultrasound wait times at several locations, including Dauphin.
