Request for proposal issued for additional hip and knee surgeries: SHA
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), along with the Ministry of Health, have issued a request for proposal (RFP) to provide a centre for additional hip and knee surgeries in Regina.
The RFP will begin the process to find potential third parties to provide up to 3,000 elective orthopedic surgeries per year.
Minister of Health, Paul Merriman, said issuing the RFP will help tackle the waitlist.
"Our surgical numbers are still at a high amount. This was something that we announced in the budget that we were going to increase our surgical capacity up to 97,000 this year which included all surgeries," he said.
The details of the RFP include a stand-alone surgery facility focused on orthopedics, increasing bed capacity for in-patient joint replacements, and day surgery procedures.
It will be the first privately owned health care facility in the province with operating rooms and patient beds for extended stays.
The nurses union and the NDP worry that hospital staff will move as well.
“Taking workers from the public system is, I’m afraid it’s going to make things worse,” said NDP leader Carla Beck.
The government anticipates doctors and nurses will move but will accomplish more in a private facility.
“It’s the same doctors, it’s the same staff. It’s just more efficient to be able to go through those privately run facilities as they don’t have that large administration,” Merriman said.
This is a further departure from publicly operated health care to a for profit model. The government said patients won’t have to worry about the cost because it will be covered by Medicare.
There are currently around 8,000 patients in Saskatchewan waiting for joint replacements, and the SHA said projections show the demand for orthopedic surgeries in the province will rise.
“Our surgical teams are dedicated to working through a number of challenges to address the surgical waitlist,” Vice President of Integrated Urban Health and Chief Nursing Officer for SHA, Sharon Garratt said in a news release.
The submission deadline is 2 p.m. on Sept. 12, and it is anticipated that services will be available on or before Dec. 31, 2023.
More information on the process and timelines of the RFP can be found on the SaskTenders website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.