Saskatchewan to spend $6 million for some hip and knee surgeries in Calgary
Saskatchewan to spend $6 million for some hip and knee surgeries in Calgary
Regina, Sask. -
The Saskatchewan government is to spend up to $6 million to send patients to Calgary for hip and knee surgeries, a move that has irked the province's largest health-care union.
An agreement made public Wednesday shows the province is to pay private provider Canadian Surgical Solutions to perform the procedures until March 2024.
Health Minister Paul Merriman has said the contract with the Calgary facility is meant to help people get their surgeries done faster, but CUPE Local 5430 President Bashir Jalloh isn't convinced it will reduce wait times in the long run.
"With this trajectory, we see that the government is moving toward nothing but privatization," Jalloh said.
In August, Merriman said the Calgary facility would perform 20 knee and hip surgeries per month for those on Saskatchewan's surgical wait list.
The government's latest budget shows the province wants to complete an additional 6,000 surgeries this year, some in private facilities.
Saskatchewan's wait list has grown over the past two years after procedures were halted during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals and health-care centres have also been short-staffed.
To address this, the Saskatchewan Party government has looked to contract private providers, including plans to open two private clinics in the province. The procedures would be publicly funded but privately delivered.
However, Merriman has said patients who have the option to go to Calgary will have to pay for their travel costs, raising concerns among public health-care advocates.
Chris Gallaway, the executive director of the Alberta-based organization Friends of Medicare, said requiring people to pay for travel costs creates a two-tier system, where those who can afford to travel essentially get to jump the line.
"They're being offered these privatization schemes as a solution, but it's not a solution," he said.
"It is really just an initiative to push more surgeries into for-profit surgical centres and out of a public system. It has nothing to do with actually addressing wait lists. What needs to happen is expanding public care."
Some doctors in Alberta have raised concerns the plan would limit access in that province. However, the Alberta government has said it would have no effect on its plan to reduce its wait list.
Merriman has pitched the plan as providing choice to patients.
"It's not a political decision," Merriman told The Canadian Press in August. "It's a clinical decision on where the specialist sees them in the queue."
Merriman said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the plan to send patients to Calgary is temporary.
He said patients who have been waiting the longest will be contacted about the Calgary program. They must be assessed as low risk to be eligible to travel, he added.
"Participation in the program is voluntary and patients can reconsider their participation at any time," he said.
Jalloh, however, said Saskatchewan's plan could make employees working in the public system switch jobs to a private clinic, worsening the staffing situation.
He is also worried about patient care once people return from Calgary.
Jalloh said patients will re-enter the public system, requiring home care and therapies. And that would increase demands on staff.
"This is going to just exacerbate the problem," Jalloh said. "If you want to do something like this, there is a need for you to try to create capacity first."
Canadian Surgical Solutions is owned by the Clearpoint Health Network, which has many private facilities across the country. Clearpoint is owned by Kensington Capital Partners, an independent Canadian investor.
--This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2023.
Photos released by NASA taken from International Space Station show the immense scale of the wildfires in Nova Scotia, with billowing smoke engulfing the landscape.
At the moment, wildfires are burning across six provinces and one territory in Canada — and they’re still spreading in what’s being called an unprecedented fire season. While firefighters work tirelessly to battle the merciless flames and prevent further destruction, scientists say the wildfires are linked to climate change and that this will be the new normal.
A 38-year-old sergeant in the Canadian Army was fined $3,000 and issued a severe reprimand after he made what a military judge described as 'utterly disgusting' anti-Jewish comments while conducting an infantry training course in 2021.
The number of people in Canada with inflammatory bowel disease is increasing rapidly and is expected to grow to 470,000 by 2035, according to a new report from Crohn's and Colitis Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he raised concerns about reports that LGBTQ2S+ rights and democracy are under threat in Poland during a Friday visit with its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Toronto.
Three Toronto men have been charged with attempted murder after they allegedly shot an innocent dog walker in Schomberg, Ont. in a case of mistaken identity.
Gatineau police arrested an 18-year-old man in connection to the investigation into a hidden camera discovered in the washroom at an elementary school.
Teachers' groups held a protest outside the National Assembly this morning to voice their opposition against the Quebec government's new education bill.
A wildfire burning out of control on northern Vancouver Island is now estimated to cover 208 hectares, or just over two square kilometres, provincial wildfire officials said Friday.
A 38-year-old sergeant in the Canadian Army was fined $3,000 and issued a severe reprimand after he made what a military judge described as 'utterly disgusting' anti-Jewish comments while conducting an infantry training course in 2021.
A popular beach in Bracebridge is open to the public two days after sewing needles were found in the water, but a second beach has since closed over safety concerns.
