REGINA – Saskatchewan NDP leader Cam Broten delivered one of his first campaign promises on Thursday, saying that, if elected, his party will reduce emergency room (ER) wait times to 15-minute (emergency) and 30-minute (urgent) benchmarks by 2018.
Broten also promised a one-hour maximum wait for less urgent cases by 2019.
“We’re seeing Saskatchewan lag further and further behind,” Broten said in a release. “Patients have become less and less of a priority.”
To achieve those goals, Broten says his government would hire 35 nurse practitioners to help fast track patients who can be quickly treated and released. He also says the NDP would open four ‘quick care’ clinics in four years in an effort to take pressure off of ERs. Finally, his government would implement ‘community paramedic’ pilot programs in Regina and Saskatoon with an aim of treating more people at home, and not in ERs.
“We have to do better,” Broten said. “I’ll make ER wait times a priority to guarantee that we do better.”
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