Manitoba residents are experiencing extended delays for knee replacement surgeries, with recent data revealing that only around 30% of procedures performed last year met Canada’s six-month benchmark. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, just 31% of knee replacements in Manitoba between April and September 2025 adhered to the national 26-week standard, placing the province below the country’s average. Only Prince Edward Island fared worse than Manitoba, with a mere 12% of knee replacements meeting the target wait time.
The institute’s lead, Ben Reason, highlighted the challenges Manitoba faces in meeting elective surgery benchmarks, particularly for hip, knee, and cataract procedures. Data indicates that 47% of hip replacements and 55% of cataract surgeries in the province met their respective national benchmarks last year. Reason attributed the increasing demand for joint replacement surgeries in Canada, especially among the aging population, to the shortage of healthcare workers like anesthesiologists and orthopedic surgeons.
Furthermore, limited availability of operating rooms and hospital beds has exacerbated surgery delays, with scheduled procedures competing with emergency cases for resources. Despite a slow recovery post-COVID-19 restrictions, Manitoba lags behind other provinces in restoring elective surgeries to pre-pandemic levels. While cataract surgeries have shown improvement, hip and knee replacements still struggle to meet benchmarks. The province has seen a rise in cataract surgeries meeting the 16-week benchmark, from 33% in 2019 to 55% in 2025.
Recent provincial data indicates that Manitoba is slightly above the national average in meeting urgent procedure benchmarks, with 85% of in-patient hip fracture procedures and 97% of radiation therapy procedures completed within their respective timeframes. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced plans to increase hip and knee replacement surgery capacity, aiming to reduce wait times and enhance healthcare accessibility for Manitobans. As of March 2026, the median wait time for knee replacements was 25 weeks, while hip replacements averaged a 20-week wait, with over 3,700 individuals awaiting knee replacements and more than 1,300 awaiting hip replacements in the province.
