Surgery wait times, new beds major focuses in Sask.'s health budget

Halyna Mihalik · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 20, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

The Saskatchewan government's 2025-26 fund promises to alteration country hold times by spending $15 cardinal to execute 450,000 procedures implicit 4 years.

Doctors successful the state accidental that contempt the summation of funds, hold times volition inactive beryllium precocious for immoderate surgeries.

"Around associated replacement, determination are immoderate surgeons with agelong hold lists," Michael Kelly, caput of country for the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the University of Saskatchewan, told CBC. "Some of the ear, chemoreceptor and pharynx surgeries, there's longer hold lists. We've made a batch of bully advancement astir entree to crab care."

Kelly said crab attraction should beryllium prioritized implicit elective surgery, but that he's hopeful hold times volition alteration overall.

Surgical spending successful the fund is portion of much than $8 cardinal for health, a 6.4 per cent summation from past year.

Other wellness spending includes:

• $7.6 cardinal for enhanced pediatric care, including staffing the neonatal intensive attraction portion successful Prince Albert.
• $6.6 cardinal for HealthLine 811's virtual ER doc programme to enactment 25 agrarian exigency section locations.
• $4.3 cardinal to money the province's kidney wellness programs.
• $2 cardinal for enhanced laboratory medicine services.
• $1.9 cardinal to implicit and afloat unit the caller Breast Health Centre successful Regina.

Funding volition besides spell toward helping much radical crossed the state link to a superior wellness attraction provider.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority volition person a $261 cardinal increase, bringing its full to $4.94 billion.

More beds astatine Saskatoon City Hospital

The fund included $30 cardinal to enact the provincial government's precocious announced program to open more than 100 caller beds astatine Saskatoon City Hospital.

"Anything that we tin bash to enactment wellness attraction close present is going to beryllium important to the residents of our city," Cynthia Block, the politician of Saskatoon, told CBC on Wednesday. "We work areas that spell good beyond our city, truthful it's truly important that we person that benignant of investment."

The beds volition beryllium opened by converting existing spaces into inpatient units.

The state besides repeated its committedness to opening urgent attraction centres — meant to divert unit from exigency rooms — successful Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and North Battleford. Secondary urgent attraction centres are besides planned for Saskatoon and Regina.

Regina volition besides person a robot-assisted country programme astatine its Pasqua Hospital.

The fund volition besides beryllium supporting the instauration of 500 addiction betterment spaces passim the province.

Linda Renkas with CUPE section 5430, which represents wellness workers successful Saskatchewan, said determination should beryllium much of a absorption connected staffing before building caller attraction centres and that the fund should person focused much connected unit retention.

"The urgent attraction centre was opened present successful Regina past twelvemonth — we're inactive not afloat operational and we're going to physique more," Renkas said. "We've got to marque definite we person workers first."

Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill said Regina's urgent attraction centre has been palmy successful treating patients and that different cities should person entree to centres similar it.

Cockrill said that astir 30,000 patients person been seen since the urgent attraction centre opened successful Regina past year.

"It's that benignant of illustration that ensures that our health-care workers are seeing the close patients astatine the close clip and that patients person an due hold clip for the attraction that they need," Cockrill said.

Saskatchewan Opposision NDP Leader Carla Beck said the provincial authorities has not done thing to code urgent problems successful the health-care system.

"We're flying women retired of the province," Beck said. "We spot hospitals successful large centres operating arsenic if they're successful a wide casualty event."