Drastic reductions in surgical patient wait times.

The average wait time for patients waiting for surgery is significantly lower, and health officials are attributing the drop to a year of hard work.

Government statistics show the number of patients waiting more than 18 months for surgery is down 57%, meanwhile those waiting just over a year is also down 37%.

Health Minister Don McMorris attributes the decline to the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative, a program introduced in April 2010.

“I am encouraged by the progress made by health regions in reducing the number of long waiters on the wait list,” McMorris said.

The program is headed up by physician Dr. David Kopriva, who said while the initiative didn’t fully meet its year-end target, the numbers show progress in addressing surgical wait times.

The overall goal is to have no patient wait more than three months for surgery by 2014.

In this upcoming year, the hope is to have all intended surgeries happen within 12 months. To aid with this, the provincial government has committed over $40million, which translates to about 5700 surgeries.