SHA looking to private sector for post-op physio in Saskatoon

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is doing more hip and knee surgeries to catch up with the pandemic backlog, but it appears it doesn’t have enough of some support staff for afterwards so it’s looking to the private sector in Saskatoon to fill the gap.

The health authority is looking for private providers for outpatient post-operative physical therapy for elective hip and knee surgeries in Saskatoon, according to a tender released earlier this month.

The authority said in a statement that it has had a 31 per cent increase in the number of hip and knee surgeries done in Saskatchewan year over year. That has put pressure on physiotherapy services after surgery “which could delay the discharge of patients and impact progress made to increase surgical capacity.”

The SHA didn’t make anyone available for an interview on the matter, and Health Minister Everett Hindley was also not made available for an interview.

According to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Saskatchewan had the worst surgical wait times in the country in 2022 for hips and knees.

The provincial government has already signed a deal with a private provider in Calgary to provide hip and knee surgeries to Saskatchewan patients.

The tender explained the SHA needs care to be provided in private clinics while it recruits to fill vacancies for physiotherapists within the authority. In a later statement, it said it continues to recruit and hire physiotherapists but patients will have this private option “until all vacancies have been filled.”

The SHA couldn’t say how many vacant physiotherapist jobs are in Saskatoon specifically, but did say across the province there is a vacancy rate of 10.8 per cent — which translates to 35 full and part-time positions.

The authority said the tender for private services is an interim measure so it can meet the higher targets for surgeries. The tender said the option will be one year with an established review period.

The tender also explained that, in line with insurance coverage, the recommendations will be three physiotherapy visits for hip replacements and six for a total knee replacement.

Last year the provincial government launched a Health Human Resources Action Plan, designed to fill the large gaps in Saskatchewan’s health-care workforce.

This month, the government gave an update on the plan and touted the progress it said it has made, including adding educational training seats with more loans, bursaries and scholarships available.

Minister for Mental Health and Addictions Tim McLeod talked about hundreds of conditional offers extended to internationally education nurses, and hundreds of hires for new nursing graduates.

Much of the recruitment efforts have been focused on the Philippines, with a special recruitment trip having been sent there last year.