Manitoba’s provincial diagnostic and surgical recovery task force: Structure, processes and outcomes

Author's Biography

David W. Matear is an internationally experienced senior executive healthcare leader. He is a Board certified (FACHE) and PhD qualified organisational leader, academician, educator, researcher and senior administrator. For over 28 years David has demonstrated expertise in government, university, hospital, public health services, institutionalised and vulnerable populations, consulting and public and private industry senior leadership appointments within Canada, the US, the UK and the Middle East, seeking to bring leadership excellence to complex healthcare systems. His areas of expertise include healthcare and academic strategic planning and management, policy analysis and strategy, public health, systems analysis and evaluation, leading organisational change, emergency management, quality improvement and organisational performance, developing and managing human capital and operations in academic, healthcare services and business environments. As an authentic and trusted operational leader recognised for fostering collaborative environments, driving organisational change, and achieving outstanding results, David is adept at leading diverse teams and implementing effective, data-driven solutions. In 2022, as Provincial Incident Commander for the Government of Manitoba, he led organisation of the incident command system (ICS) at provincial, regional and local levels for emergency response and recovery management for the COVID-19 pandemic. He successfully re-established healthcare system operations to pre-pandemic levels due to a strong focus on results achievement, responsiveness and accountability. In 2023, as Provincial Executive Director of the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force (DSRTF) for the Government of Manitoba, he built an effective taskforce and successfully led the elimination of pandemic backlogs and achievement of target wait times.