Sask. to receive almost $62M from Ottawa to cut through surgical backlog
Yasmine Ghania | CBC News | Posted: March 29, 2022 3:38 PM | Last Updated: March 29, 2022
More than 35,000 people in the province are waiting for surgery, Sask. health minister says
Saskatchewan is set to receive almost $62 million from the federal government to help clear its backlog of tens of thousands of surgeries.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced Friday that Ottawa will send another $2 billion to provinces and territories, to be distributed equally per capita. Saskatchewan's cut will be about $61.7 million.
Duclos also signalled that the federal government is willing to permanently increase the health transfer moving forward, a move that would answer a perennial demand by premiers, who want Ottawa's share of health-care spending to grow to 35 per cent from the current 22 per cent.
Saskatchewan's Health Minister Paul Merriman said he found out about the federal cash on Friday morning — days after the province tabled its budget.
"So that gives us some money to free up to do some other initiatives that we can within the surgical capacity," Merriman told reporters on Monday.
"I need to be able to talk to the federal government to see if there's options to be able to purchase equipment, maybe gear up a couple other operating theatres in the smaller centres around the province."
He also said he will speak to provincial Finance Minister Donna Harpauer to see if it's possible to move funds allocated for surgery to other areas within the health-care system.
"No conditions are attached to this funding," wrote Marie-France Proulx, Duclos's press secretary.
"It will allow provinces and territories to reduce backlogs in surgeries, diagnostics and related treatments, including better support for our health-care workers."
Speaking on background with CBC News, a federal official said there's no time limit on this money, meaning the Saskatchewan government can carry it forward to the next budget if it's not all spent in the coming fiscal year.
'More money … doesn't necessarily mean we can do more surgeries'
Merriman said he welcomes the one-time payment from the feds but cautioned, "if there's more money, that doesn't necessarily mean we can do more surgeries."
Performing additional surgeries hinges on there being enough surgeons and support staff, Merriman said.
"I want to emphasize that we are not going to catch up on our surgical backlog in 12 months," he told reporters on Monday.
More than 35,000 people in Saskatchewan are on the wait-list for surgery, Merriman said, though he anticipates the true number is higher because of people who have not been able to see their general physicians or a specialist for consultation, and therefore haven't been logged into the system yet.
The federal government announced $4 billion in funding to clear backlogs last year. It said it's chipping in more now because the problem has only gotten worse since the onset of the Omicron wave of the pandemic.
In Saskatchewan's budget, released last week, the province said it will spend $21.6 million to perform an additional 7,000 surgeries over the next year.
The province is hoping to cut through its pandemic backlog by 2025 and get to a three-month surgical wait time by 2030.