REGINA - 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鈥檚 largest health-care union.
An agreement made public Wednesday shows the province is to pay private provider 春色直播 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鈥檛 convinced it will reduce wait times in the long run.
鈥淲ith this trajectory, we see that the government is moving toward nothing but privatization,鈥 Jalloh said.
In August, Merriman said the Calgary facility would perform 20 knee and hip surgeries per month for those on Saskatchewan鈥檚 surgical wait list.
The government鈥檚 latest budget shows the province wants to complete an additional 6,000 surgeries this year, some in private facilities.
Saskatchewan鈥檚 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.
鈥淭hey're being offered these privatization schemes as a solution, but it's not a solution,鈥 he said.
鈥淚t 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.鈥
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.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a political decision,鈥 Merriman told 春色直播in August. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a clinical decision on where the specialist sees them in the queue.鈥
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鈥檚 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.
鈥淭his is going to just exacerbate the problem,鈥 Jalloh said. 鈥淚f you want to do something like this, there is a need for you to try to create capacity first.鈥
春色直播 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 春色直播 investor.
This report by 春色直播was first published March 29, 2023.
