Saskatchewan residents continue to have the longest waits for knee and hip operations in Canada. It is the fifth straight year according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Saskatoon Media Group reported the latest numbers from CIHI last week when they were released but it has now caught the eye of the NDP.
The median wait time for knee replacements was 318 days in 2023. This is longer than every other province and nearly double the national average of 161 days.
NDP MLA Jared Clark says although hip wait times were bad, knee replacement wait times were worse.
“Three-hundred-and-eighteen days was the median wait time for knee replacements, but some people waited 716 days or more,” Clark announced.
Minister of Health Everette Hindley says the province is tackling the problem by giving patients the opportunity to travel to Calgary, a measure he says the NDP are too closed minded to appreciate.
NDP MLA Meara Conway says the Calgary clinic that patients are being sent to is a donor of the Sask. Party.
“This is the Sask. Party’s M.O. Step one: neglect the public service and run it into the ground. Step two: wait for the public to get frustrated with the service. Step three: privatize the service to their friends. Step four: rake in the donations while their friends and insiders get rich,” Conway stated.
Hindley fired back with a similar remark.
“Here’s the Opposition’s playbook. Number one: give up on Saskatchewan. Drive people out of this province. Reduce the population. Number two: Close hospitals. Close 52 rural hospitals across this province. Fire doctors. Fire nurses. Shut down training programs, for example for registered psychiatric nurses. Heaven forbid we would have some of those being training in our province.”
On a more positive note, construction is complete on the new Regina Urgent Care Centre, however the NDP is concerned about how the facility is going to be staffed.
Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck says there is already chronic short staffing at the Regina General and Pasqua hospitals. She questioned Premier Scott Moe on his plan to staff the new centre.
“We have the Health Human Resource Plan. The most ambitious Health Human Resource Plan in the nation of Canada, showing successes with a hiring of nurses from not only Canadian graduates but from afar. It’s starting to drive down our surgical waitlists across our Saskatchewan Health Authority.”
Beck replied that there won’t be health care workers to hire, as they are burning out and leaving their profession, all because they aren’t being listened to.
