Sask. performed record number of surgeries between April and December

Saskatchewan cut significantly into its surgical backlog in the first nine months of the fiscal year.

In a media release Tuesday, the provincial government said 71,850 surgical procedures were done between April 1 and Dec. 31 of last year. That’s an increase of 6,000 procedures over the nine-month period ending December 2022.

The increase over the first nine months of the fiscal year follows a record number of surgeries done in the first six months.

“Thousands more patients are receiving the procedures they need thanks to the tireless effort, leadership and collaboration of our surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and care teams,” Health Minister Everett Hindley said in the release.

“Our government will continue to work closely with our partner agencies to continue supporting health-care professionals in improving the quality of life for patients in our province.”

The government said it’s aiming to exceed last year’s record total of more than 90,000 surgical procedures, and to ensure that 90 per cent of operations are done within 10 months of the patient being told they need surgery.

The goal is to have no patients on a waiting list for more than 18 months.

In July of last year, the Opposition NDP noted that Saskatchewan has the highest wait times in the country.

The NDP pointed to a Canadian Institute for Health Information report from 2022, which showed the national average wait time for knee replacements was 198 days. The average wait in Saskatchewan was more than twice that, at 466 days.

As well, the report said the average wait time in Saskatchewan for hip replacements was 309 days, nearly twice the national average of 164 days.

The provincial government has looked at options to reduce wait times, including sending patients to other provinces where the procedures could be done. In March of last year, the Saskatchewan government signed a deal with a private surgical provider in Calgary.

The government said that from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 of last year, the surgeries done or offered exceeded the target of 90 per cent.

During a virtual media conference Tuesday, Cindy Graham — the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s executive director of provincial surgical services — said orthopedic procedures were where the SHA made its biggest gains, specifically in hip and knee replacements.

Graham said there a was a backlog of patients waiting for orthopedic procedures coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve seen considerable improvements in not just the number of people waiting for that procedure, but also bringing down the wait times,” Graham said.

She said there has been a 68 per cent reduction overall in long-waiting for patients, which the SHA categorizes as greater than a year and a half.

Graham said the SHA’s goal is to get the number of long-waiting patients to zero by the end of the year.

“We know that people waiting for these type of procedures are suffering in the community, the quality of life has potentially decreased and the other conditions (as well),” she said.

Additionally, she said 82 people have had knee replacements in Calgary.

Dr. Michael Kelly, the SHA’s provincial department head of surgery, said the data the record is based on is from time of booking to surgery itself, though he said wait times to see a specialist are just as important.

Kelly said he hopes to see data for time to see a specialist be made available and said there are initiatives put forward to make that said data available for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

“I think that this is the way forward for all surgical bookings,” he said.

Hindley said the pre-pandemic total waitlist was about 25,000 people, which increased to almost 36,000 by November of 2021.

“As of Dec. 31, 2023, the total surgical wait list was down to about 27,400 patients on that list and we’re working really really hard. Our teams are doing some excellent work to try and get that to a pre-COVID waitlist of 25,000 cases by March 31 of this year,” he said.

Apart from staffing issues, Kelly said co-ordination has been the biggest hurdle to the SHA meeting its target.

In 2023-24, the government invested nearly $670 million in its surgical program. The ’23-24 budget put an additional $42.5 million into the surgical wait time strategy to provide 6,000 additional surgeries.

The province said it will be able to do more surgeries as a result of its Health Human Resources Action Plan, which aims to add 1,000 health-care workers to the system over the next few years.

More information on the province’s surgical performance and wait times can be found here.