WRHA wants a further 15% reduction in ER wait times

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority intendsto further slash emergency room wait timesin the year ahead.

Ral Cloutier, interim president and CEO, said todaythe health authority wantsto cut wait times by 15 per cent in the coming year, which follows a 16 per cent overall reduction in the past year.

Cloutierrevealed his new targetduring his remarks Thursday morning at the grand opening of the new $43.8 million emergency room atGrace Hospital.

The goal was announcedas health officials prepare for the second phase of a multi-year reorganization of Winnipeg's health care services. The sweeping changesinclude converting theemergency room at Seven Oaks Hospital into anurgent care centre and shuttering Concordia Hospital's ER department.

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The province will announce more details aboutthe plan next week, which launches Tuesday with the re-opening of Grace's ER.

The first phase of the plan, implemented last October, closed the urgent care centre atMisericordiaHealth Centre and converted the ERat Victoria General Hospital into anurgent care centre, among other changes.

Winter spike blamed on flu

Although the average wait timedropped to 1.35 hours in October, the month the health care overhaul was introduced, the median wait steadily increased every month until at least this March (2.02 hours) when the WRHAreleasedpreliminary year-end numbers.

Health officials blamed the flu for the month-by-month uptick, but the opposition NDP said the spikeis evidence the Pallister government's overhaulis not working.

Overall, the median wait time atcityERs improved to 1.62 hours in 2017-18 from 1.93 hours in 2016-17.