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.
Canada will spend $500 million to help Ukraine's military fight Russia's invasion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, including more weapons and fighter-pilot training.
Fires across the country are burning millions of hectares of land but what does that really look like? CTVNews.ca compared the blazes to some cities and lakes in the country showing just how big they have gotten.
Foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston has resigned, CTV News has confirmed. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Johnston cited the intense politicization of his appointment and work, as the reason for his coming departure.
A Ukrainian-Canadian teenager is on an emotional journey to capture the destruction of the Russian invasion, including of his childhood home, on camera.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents, according to an indictment unsealed Friday that alleges that he described a Pentagon 'plan of attack' and shared a classified map related to a military operation.
A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Preventative Medicine Reports by a group of international researchers has found that post-secondary students with unhealthy eating habits can go on to suffer from disease and mental health issues for years to come.
Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shocked Britain on Friday by quitting as a lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament.
Showers are predicted Saturday over the aggressive wildfire threatening Tumbler Ridge, but forecasters say thunderstorms could sweep through the parched region without bringing any rain.
The head of Saskatoon’s chamber of commerce responding with frustration to the city’s announcement of a $75 million deficit over the next two years — and the tax hikes that will likely be needed to help makeup some of the the shortfall.
Disturbing new details about a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting women in Calgary have come to light, as court documents exposing accounts from his alleged victims have been unsealed.
Ukraine's military reported intense fighting with Russian forces on Saturday, while the country's nuclear energy agency said it put the last operating reactor at Europe's largest nuclear power plant into a 'cold shutdown' for safety as Russia's war on Ukraine drags on through its 16th month.
Calgary firefighters scrambled to attack a grass fire that broke out in the southeast, near an Amazon warehouse, between Builders Road and Manitou Road, around 8:30 p.m., Friday evening.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith named her new cabinet Friday, about two weeks after her United Conservative Party took the majority of seats in Alberta.
Ottawa police say four men were located on Clarence Street with gunshot wounds at approximately 1:30 a.m. Two of the men suffered life-threatening injuries.
Canada will spend $500 million to help Ukraine's military fight Russia's invasion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, including more weapons and fighter-pilot training.
Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon says the fraud hotline has been receiving approximately five to 10 reports a day over the past year linked to bus operator "compliance nature", and it is overwhelming her office.
The Moby Dick restaurant has been serving up its famous fish and chips on the White Rock promenade since it was founded by the Mueller family in 1975. But one local city councillor clearly isn’t a fan.
Authorities in West Vancouver say it's lucky more people were not harmed when a driver crashed his car through the entrance of a Whole Foods Friday, coming to a stop in the busy produce section.
Developer Beedie Living's condo tower was originally voted down by the City of Vancouver's Development Permit Board in 2017, but a challenge in B.C. Supreme Court and a shift in community sentiment have given the project new life.
Three of the province's nine Cree communities are threatened by wildfires, including Waswanipi and Mistissini. But only Oujé-Bougoumou, about 500 kilometres north of Montreal, has been evacuated completely.
The fierce battle to protect Quebec communities from forest fires continues on the ground as the Quebec forest fire fighting society (SOPFEU) reported 123 active forest fires on Saturday morning, nearly half of which were out of control. At last count, more than 13,500 residents remain evacuated, mainly in Chibougamau and Lebel-sur-Quévillon in Northern Quebec.
Fires across the country are burning millions of hectares of land but what does that really look like? CTVNews.ca compared the blazes to some cities and lakes in the country showing just how big they have gotten.
Wildfire officials are sending an additional 20 firefighters to help battle an out-of-control blaze that has burned more than two square kilometres of forest and cut off a major highway on Vancouver Island.
Nova Scotia says it has identified more details about the records stolen in a file transfer service cyber attack, impacting teachers, students and health care workers' records.
A tenant displaced in the downtown Sudbury fire last month said her hotel is denying her request to move her room to a centralized location following an attempted break-in.
Police have shut down a section of Highway 401 westbound between Woodstock and Cambridge after a crash involving a transport truck and an Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) vehicle.
The Waterloo Region Integrated Drug Strategy (WRIDS) is sounding the alarm after a significant number of drug overdose and poisonings were reported over the last few days.
