The Manitoba government says it performed a record number of hip and knee replacement surgeries last year, but the Manitoba Nurses Union says long wait times show many patients are still not getting timely care.
Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara recently announced that 7,056 joint replacement surgeries were completed provincewide in 2025, the highest annual total on record.
“This is what rebuilding health care looks like,” Asagwara said in a release. “Instead of sending patients out of province, we’re expanding capacity here at home, targeting people who have been waiting the longest and modernizing how care is delivered.”
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The province says the increase reflects a focus on patients with the longest waits and a shift toward outpatient procedures, with nearly 70 per cent of hip and knee replacements now done without overnight hospital stays. Officials say the change helps free up inpatient beds and improves patient flow.
Part of the expansion includes a surgical program launched in 2024 at Selkirk Regional Health Centre. The province says 591 joint replacements were completed there as of December 2025, with the program expected to reach about 800 surgeries by the end of the fiscal year.
Joint replacement patient Darlene Yurkiw said the surgery significantly improved her quality of life.
“I used to not be able to put on shoes or socks at all, but now I can,” she said. “I can even do some moderate hiking now, which is huge for me as a nature lover.”
The government says the surgery increase is part of a broader effort to rebuild health care, including the addition of 3,500 net-new health-care workers and the opening of 323 fully staffed hospital beds. It also points to programs such as Health Links and the Virtual Medicine Ward as ways to ease pressure on hospitals and emergency departments.
However, the Manitoba Nurses Union said the record surgery numbers mask ongoing access problems.
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According to the union, median wait times remain 26 weeks for hip replacements and 29 weeks for knee replacements, both at or above the national benchmark of six months. It says only 40 per cent of Manitobans received joint replacement surgery within the benchmark timeframe in 2024-25.
The union also says more than 4,500 people are still waiting for surgery, about 1,150 for hips and 3,400 for knees, and those figures do not include the time patients wait to see a specialist.
“Doing more procedures is not the same as fixing the problem, especially when wait times are growing and thousands of patients are still living in pain,” the union said in a statement. “Manitobans deserve transparency, not press releases.”
Former nurse turned health-care advocate Katrina said rising volumes alone will not resolve long-standing pressures in the system.
“Our health-care system is caring for a very different population than it was built for,” she said, pointing to an aging population with more complex needs and longer recoveries. “Even when more surgeries are being done, the system can still feel slow because capacity, staffing and flow take time to rebuild.”
She said meaningful progress depends on stabilizing staff, maintaining consistent operating room schedules and strengthening recovery and community supports.
“Health care doesn’t heal through headlines,” she said. “It heals through time, transparency and sustained care for both patients and the people providing it.”
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