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home / 世界杯决赛2022

mandryk: private surgeries are no magical solution to covid-19 backlog

when it comes to the private surgical option plan as proposed by moe and merriman, it's likely only going to be able to take us so far.

by murray mandryk

dec 14 2021
read time 4 minute read
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one might hope that 21 months of this pandemic have taught governments there are no magic political solutions that are going to solve all our problems.
whatever gains or successes we’ve made against covid-19 have always come at great cost — either in dollars or sacrifices that people have had to make.

for this reason, it’s unwise to totally suspend belief when it comes to the private-sector magical solution to surgery backlogs that premier scott moe and heath minister paul merriman are conjuring.

the good news is there is reason to at least start seriously thinking about what post-covid-19 life is going to look like — notwithstanding concerns over a fifth wave and the omicron variant.

sure, we can dwell on the reality that 2021 was far more deadly, with 784 of saskatchewan’s 937 total covid-19 deaths (as of sunday) so far occurring in this calendar year. there were 153 deaths in 2020.

almost 40 per cent of all saskatchewan covid-19-related deaths occurred after we “met” the year’s july 11 re-opening target of 70 per cent of then-eligible adults vaccinated with one dose (there had been 573 deaths at that point).

but saskatchewan hasn’t exactly been alone in its 2021 covid-19 struggles. every province has a similar story to tell and the u.s. has now passed 800,000 known covid-19-related deaths — more than population of north dakota. about 385,000 americans died of covid-19 in 2020.

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moreover, this province’s seven-day average is down to 53 new cases a day — nearly one-tenth of its october peak. with just 11 covid-19-related  deaths so far in december, we are no longer on pace to hit 1,000 deaths by christmas which seemed inevitable just a few weeks ago.
we now should be looking toward the aftermath of covid-19. and maybe now is the exact time to re-examine whether absolutely every health-care service must be delivered in a  public institution like a hospital. that doesn’t really happen now. most people have been to a dentist or a chiropractor.

that said, when it comes to the private surgical option plan as proposed by moe and merriman , it’s likely only going to be able to take us so far.

credit the sask. party government for setting out aggressive targets like a three-month wait time for surgeries by 2030 that would see 7,000 more surgeries (than pre-pandemic levels) in 2022-23, 6,000 more in 2023-24 and 5,000 more in 2024-25. also, “expanding and optimizing operating room hours” or “making greater use of regional surgical sites” makes sense.
notwithstanding their vested interests in the matter, saskatchewan health union leadership has a point that it all ultimately comes down to staffing.
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“when people talk about eliminating wait times, they think you snap your fingers and magical things will happen,” said seiu-west president barb cape
cape noted the problem goes beyond hiring more nurses and doctors (which, to its credit, the sask. party government has done since coming to power in 2007) because the system is also going to need “diagnostics, therapy and other positions that help people prepare and recover.“
merriman may be right that the more minor procedures like cataract surgeries account for large portions of the backlog. he may even be right we could explore different payment options for hip and knee replacements or ear/nose/throat procedures.
however, the notion that there’s a pool of potential health-care providers either working part-time and wanting to come back full-time or that can be easily trained and retained to help perform more private surgeries seems rather naive.
potentially as naive is the notion that “building enhanced contracts with private surgical providers” will be a simple and easy solution. are we likely to cheaply and easily attract more doctors and nurses when we have to compete with other provinces that have similar problems?
has this government during covid-19 made saskatchewan an attractive destination for the health-care providers we will need over the next decade? what will this cost the overall public system in both staffing and dollars?

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by now, we should all realize answers that sound more like a political responses than a viable, practical solution don’t work against this virus … or most things.
mandryk is the political columnist for the regina leader-post and the saskatoon starphoenix.
the news seems to be flying at us faster all the time. from covid-19 updates to politics and crime and everything in between, it can be hard to keep up. with that in mind, the regina leader-post has created an afternoon headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox to help make sure you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. click here to subscribe.

our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. for regina leader-post newsletters click here; for saskatoon starphoenix newsletters click here

murray mandryk
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