PRIVATIZING MEDICARE
Saskatchewan will pay private clinics to help close surgery gap

Privately run orthopedic surgery clinic to be built in Saskatoon intended to help clear the province's surgical backlog.

Author of the article: Zak Vescera

Publishing date: Jul 25, 2022 

Prairieview Surgical Centre in Saskatoon is owned by 

Calgary-based Surgical Centres Inc. 

Photo taken in Saskatoon, SK on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. 

PHOTO BY MATT SMITH /Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Saskatchewan’s government wants a privately run orthopedic surgery clinic to be built in Saskatchewan as part of an effort to clear a record backlog of postponed procedures.

The province says it will issue a formal request next month for a private company to build a site “focused on increasing operating room and bed capacity for in-patient joint replacements, as well as a variety of day surgery procedures.”

The Ministry of Health says it is also exploring contracting an existing private surgery clinic outside of the province to perform hip and knee surgeries for residents on the province’s waitlist.

“This option would be offered to patients on a fully voluntary basis, who have waited the longest for their joint replacement procedures while work is ongoing to accelerate expansion plans in public and private facilities,” reads a provincial government release.

Both moves would constitute a major expansion of the private sector’s role in providing surgical services in the province, a step many health-care experts warn could sap staff and resources from an already-struggling public system.

Cutting the backlog

The province’s surgical waiting list has been growing since 2015 and ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic, when government twice postponed elective surgeries to cope with a flood of sick patients in hospital.

The Ministry of Health said recent surgical volumes have increased and that it delivered 5,000 more surgeries in the first five months of 2022 than during the same time period in 2022.

But it has made little progress at actually reducing the total backlog. An internal Saskatchewan Health Authority report obtained by the StarPhoenix from earlier this month notes that surgical volumes have only returned to pre-pandemic levels this year.

The actual number of surgeries on the waiting list has hovered between 35,000 and 36,000 since the start of the year.

Health Minister Paul Merriman has announced plans to cut the backlog of pandemic surgeries by 2025 and to achieve a 90-day wait time by 2030, something government has previously promised but not accomplished.

The province is spending a total of $41.6 million in the coming year to address the backlog and aims to perform about 7,000 more surgeries in the current fiscal year than pre-pandemic levels, with further increases in years after.

Merriman has previously said that the vast bulk of that cash will go to public services, but has been clear some will also go to the private sector.

“We are considering all options while we move forward on a number of initiatives, such as facility upgrades and expansions across the province and comprehensive human resource plans to increase surgical capacity through additional hiring,” Merriman said in a prepared statement.

A disproportionate number of delayed surgeries are hip and knee replacements. As of earlier this month, internal Saskatchewan Health Authority documentation shows 4,098 patients had already waited more than 12 months for an orthopedic procedure.

Those delays have caused many patients extended discomfort and pain. Some have even decided to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to get the surgery in the United States or at private clinics in Alberta.

Saskatchewan already pays a private company to perform cataract, ear, nose, throat and other surgeries at facilities in Regina and Saskatoon. The SHA paid Surgical Centres Inc. more than $10 million in 2021, according to public accounts. The company registered as a lobbyist in Saskatchewan earlier this year.

zvescera@postmedia.com
twitter.com/zakvescera


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