a new study showing that more than 400 people in saskatchewan died over a one-year period while on surgical wait lists is another sign that the province’s health system is untenable, provincial ndp critics say.
according to the study conducted by independent research institute secondstreet.org, 402 saskatchewan people died while waitlisted for surgery — the second-most per capita among reporting canadian provinces — between april 1, 2022 and march 31, 2023.
secondstreet says the data covers cases in which patients died waiting for procedures that could have been potentially life-saving — such as a heart operation — and those that could have improved quality of life — such as a hip operation. patients died after waiting as little as a few days and as long as nearly 11 years.
“we know that more and more people are spending their final months in pain, and that’s just not acceptable,” saskatchewan ndp’s rural and remote health critic matt love said on thursday.
“we have the longest waits for key procedures in canada, so long that hundreds of people are dying each year due to the backlog. our health system is going in the wrong direction.”
according to the ndp, the death rate for those in saskatchewan on a surgical wait list has increased by 66 per cent since 2018, when scott moe was elected premier. there are currently around 28,400 people in saskatchewan on a surgery wait list.