Saskatchewan to send patients to Alberta for privatized surgery; won't pay for travel
Saskatchewan plans to send people to Alberta to get privatized surgeries, but the cost of travel won't be covered by the government.
Health Minister Paul Merriman said the Saskatchewan Party government will begin paying a Calgary clinic this fall to perform 20 knee and hip surgeries a month for those on the province's surgical wait list.
"If somebody does have the option to go to Calgary, they will incur the travel expenses back and forth, but they would have their surgery done considerably faster," Merriman said.
"If somebody has the financial means, they can do that and that opens up another spot within the public system."
Colleen Flood, University of Ottawa research chair in health law and policy, said the move would affect patients in lower socioeconomic circumstances who may find it more difficult to pay the cost of travel and, therefore, lose out on access to timely care
"That really is an additional user charge that's being added onto the patient, and that's in contravention of the Canada Health Act," Flood said.
"If the Saskatchewan government is planning on sending patients abroad, or to other jurisdictions, they need to make sure there's some assistance and compensation for the travel costs that they may incur."
NDP Opposition Leader Carla Beck criticized the delivery of out-of-province care, saying it would allow people to jump the line, which goes against the principles of the Canadian health-care system.
The Ministry of Health said there were more than 35,000 people waiting for a surgery as of March 31 with more than 8,000 patients waiting for hip or knee replacement surgeries alone.
Sending some patients to Calgary is part of Saskatchewan's aggressive plan to have the shortest surgical wait list in the country, Merriman said.
The province is also looking to open two private clinics within its public health system, with hopes that a Regina clinic will perform more than 3,000 orthopedic surgeries annually. The surgeries will be privately delivered, but publicly funded.
Merriman pitched the plan as providing choices to patients. When someone is being booked for a knee or hip surgery, they will have the choice to either access care in a private clinic, through the public system or travel to Calgary.
"It's not a political decision," Merriman said. "It's a clinical decision on where the specialist sees them in the queue."
Last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his Progressive Conservative government would "get creative" when looking at ways to deliver surgeries as it deals with a staffing crisis in hospitals that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like Saskatchewan, provinces throughout Canada have health-care systems that are partially privatized, including long-term care homes, family doctors, MRI tests and diagnostics.
In Saskatchewan, privately delivered surgeries accounted for 15 per cent of all surgeries performed in 2019-20, the Ministry of Health said.
Flood cautioned that opening the door to private clinics could place more pressure on politicians to privatize other services.
"The risk with these kinds of things is that once they're in place inside a public health-care system, they don't just sit there passively working away and they're all happy clams," Flood said. "They're going to want to make more money."
She said transparency is important and provincial governments need to remain clear "this is all within the public Medicare system" and will be "keeping their eyes very firmly fixed on the performance of these clinics and making sure they deliver."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW What Canada is doing about the toxic forever chemicals in drinking water
As the United States sets its first national limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water, researchers say Canada is lagging when it comes to regulations.
Arrest made, manslaughter charge pending in 2022 death of Calgary toddler
Calgary police have arrested a man and a charge is pending in connection with the death of a toddler in 2022.
Prince William returns to public duties after wife Kate's cancer revelation
Prince William will return to public duties on Thursday for the first time since his wife Kate revealed she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Where did the gold go? Crime expert weighs in on unfolding Pearson Airport heist investigation
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Here's why experts don't think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai's downpour
Scientists say it's highly unlikely cloud seeding is responsible for the heavy rains that have caused flooding in the United Arab Emirates this month, and that climate change is the more likely culprit.