3 in 10 knee replacement surgeries in Manitoba met Canada's wait-time benchmark in 2025, data shows

Manitobans are facing long waits for knee replacement surgeries, as new data shows only about three in 10 procedures completed last year were done within Canada's six-month benchmark.

Only 31 per cent of Manitoba knee replacement surgeries done between April and September 2025 met the national benchmark of 26 weeks, new data released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information on Thursday shows.

That puts Manitoba well behind the Canadian average and almost all other provinces, except Prince Edward Island.

One in 10 Manitobans waiting for a knee replacement waited more than a year and a half to get surgery, the data shows.

Between April and September 2025, 63 per cent of knee replacement surgeries in Canada met the six-month benchmark.

Ben Reason, the institute's lead for the project, said the province is lagging on some elective surgery benchmarks.

"Manitoba right now is struggling with three main benchmark procedures that are elective procedures. So, hip, knee and cataract," he said.

The new data shows 47 per cent of hip replacements in the province last year met the surgery's 26-week national benchmark, and 55 per cent of cataract surgeries were done within the 16-week benchmark for that procedure.

Reason said Canada's aging population is increasing demand for joint replacement surgeries, while many health-care systems are facing staffing shortages.

"Canada is experiencing shortages of certain types of health-care workers. That includes surgical-care staff, and that's limiting the system's ability to meet the growing demand," he said, adding there aren't enough anesthesiologists and orthopedic surgeons to meet those needs.

Additionally, some health-care facilities are grappling with limited availability of operating rooms and hospital beds, which Reason says could lead to further surgery delays.

"Scheduled procedures often compete with emergency cases for space and for staff, and especially for recovery beds," he said.

Reason says the COVID-19 pandemic limited access and stretched wait times for elective surgeries across most Canadian provinces. The following years saw a slow recovery, but Manitoba is moving slower than other parts of the country, he said.

"We're seeing a little bit of a recovery, but … not really matching the recovery that we're seeing overall in Canada," Reason said.

Fewer knee and hip replacements met their benchmarks in 2022 than any other year included in the data, which ranges from 2019 to 2025. Only 26 per cent of knee surgeries and 43 per cent of hip surgeries were done within the six-month target that year.

"A lot of people who were supposed to have their surgeries in late 2020 or in 2021 had them delayed because of COVID restrictions …. We saw massively increased volumes starting around 2022," Reason said.

While some elective surgeries have been slow to bounce back in the province, Reason says the number of cataract surgeries meeting its benchmark has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, only 33 per cent of cataract surgeries in Manitoba were done within 16 weeks. That jumped to 55 per cent in 2025.

"In terms of recovery, pretty good for cataracts, but still room to go. And not seeing as much recovery in hip and knee as the rest of Canada," he said.

However, the Canadian Institute for Health Information's data shows Manitoba is slightly above the Canadian average for meeting some urgent procedure benchmarks.

In 2025, 85 per cent of in-patient hip fracture procedures were done within the 48-hour target, while 97 per cent of radiation therapy procedures were done within the 28-day benchmark.

"Anything 90 per cent meeting benchmark or more is considered pretty good," Reason said.

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a statement to CBC News the government is adding more knee and hip replacement surgeries at facilities across the province to "help more Manitobans receive care sooner while increasing capacity across our health-care system."

Asagwara announced last week the province is adding capacity for 200 more hip and knee replacement surgeries. The minister spoke at a news conference at Selkirk's hospital, where 800 knee and hip replacement surgeries were performed in the past year, the province said.

The minister said greater capacity is leading to better wait times.

"More than half of patients are now receiving surgery within the 26-week national benchmark," Asagwara said.

Provincial data covering up to March 2026 shows the median wait time for knee replacement surgery was 25 weeks during the first three months of this year. The average wait for hip replacements was 20 weeks over this period.

As of March, more than 3,700 Manitobans were waiting for a knee replacement, and over 1,300 were waiting for a hip replacement.