When the NDP were running for election in 1999, the cornerstone of their campaign was a promise to end "hallway medicine" in six months with $15 million.

So what is "hallway medicine " It's a methodology of counting patients in hallways started by the Filmon government. Here is how it works: each morning at 8:00 a.m. hospital staff are required to count the number of patients waiting in Emergency Room (ER) hallways, then subtract that number from the number of available beds elsewhere in the ER. So if there are 10 people waiting in the hallway, but there are 6 empty beds in the ER, they will report 4 people waiting.

Fast forward to 2006 and days before the most recent session of the legislature ended, Premier Doer claimed there were "zero" patients in the hallways. In response to questions from the opposition regarding Winnipeg's growing ER crisis, on June 6th Premier Doer stood in the legislature and said "the average patients in the hallways in the ER in 1999 were 28 patients, Mr. Speaker - today, there is zero. When McFadyen (now Opposition leader) was the principal secretary to the premier, there were 28 patients in the hallway. There is zero today. Zero."

Unfortunately for the premier, the numbers tell a different story. According to documents obtained through freedom of information by the Winnipeg Sun, on the days Doer declared there weren't any patients waiting in hallways there were in fact 46 patients waiting in 5 hospital ERs.

Since the premier refuses to discuss the issue further, or at least outside of the legislature (politicians can pretty much say whatever they want inside the chambers, correct or not because a parliamentary rule protects them from being held liable) it makes it very difficult to hold him accountable for putting false information on the record. Adding further frustration is the premier and his health minister are acutely aware the "hallway" numbers are being fudged.

Misleading the public is becoming a specialty of this government. Remember the re-branding campaign that was supposed to cost taxpayers $500,000 ended up at a whopping $1.6 million And let's not forget this government's promise to tighten up the freedom of information laws, that hasn't happened.

But ad campaigns and information laws are one thing, tinkering around with health care statistic for political gain is quite another.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (which is pretty much a government department) asserts the counting practice is to "measure ER capacity." Try telling that to a patient who waited for hours in a gurney.
It is little wonder why Manitoba has some of the longest hospital wait times in the country, the people running the show refuse address the truth.

There will likely be a provincial election in Manitoba within the year, and it will be up to us as the taxpaying citizens of Manitoba to demand government tell the truth and be accountable.