Newfoundland and Labrador is spending money in the wrong places to solve chronic problems with wait times, NDP Leader Lorraine Michael says.

Health Minister Susan Sullivan unveiled a $5-million plan on Wednesday to reduce wait times in both emergency rooms and for some orthopedic surgeries.

The spending includes setting up intake clinics in Gander and Corner Brook, and hiring two new physiotherapists at Eastern Health.

But Michael said government needs to beef up its community-based resources, in order to get people out of hospitals sooner.

"It's [a] lack of good home-care services and other community services for people who are in hospital and shouldn't be there that is really adding to the wait times in the ER," Michael said.

Michael added government was given good advice on community-based care in an independent report it commissioned only two years ago.

Michael said she is not holding her breath for dramatic changes.

"You know, I've had three different ministers of health stand in the house of assembly and promise me a long-term care and home-care strategy, and I suspect we're going to have a fourth one now with Minister Sullivan," she said.

Liberal Leader Dwight Ball didn't think much of a component of the new strategy, which includes $700,000 to study bottlenecks in emergency rooms. He said ERs are filled because people have no alternatives and cannot be discharged.

"When people can't find a family doctor or a health care professional within their community, they certainly end up in emergency rooms, so that is old news," Ball said.