A specialized clinic at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre could be a model for delivering same-day, specific care across Manitoba, its medical director says.
For five years, the Wilf Taillieu Thoracic Surgery Clinic and Endoscopy Unit at HSC has diagnosed, treated and operated on patients suffering from esophageal cancer, lung cancer and other conditions.
The clinic takes same-day referrals and biopsies and can diagnose certain types of cancer in as few as two weeks. Prior to the clinic’s existence, some conditions took up to eight weeks to diagnose.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Dr. Biniam Kidane in a procedure room at the Wilf Taillieu Thoracic Surgery Clinic and Endoscopy Unit in the Health Sciences Centre which was built to diagnose and treat esophageal cancer, lung cancer and other thoracic conditions.
“You will never find an intervention like this that is universally kind of a win, win win,” said Dr. Biniam Kidane.
In 2018, before the clinic opened, HSC performed 524 related procedures. Last year, clinic surgeons performed 1,275 operations.
The clinic was funded by a $3.5 million donation campaign and operational support from the HSC Foundation and is publicly operated. It is the only thoracic surgery clinic in Canada.
The medical centre is named for the late owner of Taillieu Construction, whose wife, Mavis Taillieu, was instrumental in fundraising efforts. Wilf Taillieu died in 2016 of esophageal cancer. He was 67.
Prior to the unit’s opening, HSC was short on capacity to diagnose and treat cancer patients, and those needing immediate care could only go to an emergency room. Patients with scheduled thoracic surgeries would often get bumped for more immediately life-threatening cases.
“Five years ago I would say we were middle of the pack for Canada for this type of care … but now with this clinic, I think we’re sort of top of the pack in Canada. I would say we’re right up there delivering Mayo Clinic-level care,” he said.
Kidane, who was recruited to Winnipeg from Toronto to oversee the clinic, said the success of it is proof that prioritizing specialized care can impact the entire health-care system.
“It reduces emergency wait times, emergency room utilization, health-care utilization, so it saves money for (the province), it improves the quality of life for the patients, they feel way better, and they actually feel like humans,” he said.
Lung and esophageal cancer rates are on the rise in Manitoba and the clinic helps to intervene on the disease early for higher success rates, Dr. Sadeesh Srinathan, head of thoracic surgery at HSC, said in a news release.
According to CancerCare Manitoba’s most recent available numbers, 910 Manitobans were diagnosed with lung or bronchus cancer in 2021. In Canada, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer is 22 per cent.
Kidane would like to see the clinic’s model replicated across the medical system.
“What this shows is it’s a microcosm of what can be accomplished when you focus in on what a population or a group of patients need, and then design the system around it,” he said.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
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