SASKATOON – Patients in the province are receiving surgeries sooner, with the help of the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative (SSI).
Updated stats show 80.2 per cent of Saskatchewan patients who received surgery between Nov. 1, 2013 and Jan. 31, 2014, waited less than three months.
“Our health system has been steadily driving down wait times so surgical patients can get the care they need sooner,” said Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan’s health minister.
Of the patients waiting for surgery on Jan. 31, 4,608 patients had been waiting over three months. The government says this is a decrease of 10,755 since the SSI was launched in March 2010.
Originally, the provincial government pledged that by March 2014, no patient would wait for more than three months of the decision to proceed for surgical treatment.
According to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, most health regions should reach the SSI target by April.
However, an increased demand for surgery in the Saskatoon and Regina Qu’Appelle health regions has slowed the province’s progress.
This past fiscal year, April 1, 2013 to Jan. 31, 2014, Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) saw demand for surgery increase by 1,100 more than it was expecting. The region performed 79 per cent of its surgeries within three months as of Jan. 31.
Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) was at 71 per cent of the SSI target at the end of January.
SHR is now expected to meet the target by late 2014 and RQHR by March 2015.
There was at total of 15,971 Saskatchewan patients waiting for surgery on Jan. 31, a decrease of 42 per cent since March 2010.
As part of the newly-tabled Saskatchewan budget, $60.5 million will be invested into SSI and the continuation of improved surgical care.
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