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Saskatchewan Gets Federal Money to Guarantee Heart Surgery in Six Months

Posted on: Thursday, 29 March 2007, 21:02 CDT

By TIM COOK

REGINA (CP) - The Saskatchewan government has become the latest province to sign up for the federal government's health wait-time guarantees, taking in nearly $25 million in exchange for putting a cap on the length of time a patient waits for heart surgery.

By 2010, a Saskatchewan resident needing a coronary artery bypass graft will wait no longer than 26 weeks under the new guarantee announced Thursday. The province is already very close to meeting that target, meaning most of the money will go to the bottom line of the health-care system.

"You're building capacity in the system," federal Health Minister Tony Clement told reporters at the provincial legislature.

"Once you build capacity in the system for this, it helps you build capacity in the other parts of the system as well."

Saskatchewan Health Minister Len Taylor said the province chose the area of cardiac bypass because it is already doing quite well at meeting national wait-time benchmarks.

"We have chosen an area that we know we can be successful," Taylor said. "We've built capacity to this point."

There are three levels of urgency when it comes to coronary artery bypass.

Under the new guarantees, Level 1 patients will get the procedure within two weeks, Level 2 within six weeks and Level 3 within 26 weeks.

Right now, according to provincial health officials, almost every Level 1 and Level 2 patient and about 98 per cent of Level 3 patients get the care they need in that time frame.

The Opposition Saskatchewan Party said Taylor should have chosen a more ambitious area to guarantee care.

"What's he going to put the money into?" Asked health critic Don McMorris. "It better be into shortening the waiting lists in some of those other areas."

Saskatchewan is the latest province to sign onto the federal plan.

Earlier this week, Ontario guaranteed cataract patients surgery within six months with the help of $205 million form Ottawa.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Quebec are also getting federal funding to shorten wait times for cardiac surgery, cancer therapy and cataract surgery.

The Saskatchewan deal comes after a string of recent jibes between the province and the federal government over the wait-time guarantee issue.

During a visit to Saskatoon earlier this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper took a poke at the provincial government, saying a strained relationship with Ottawa was preventing deals such as the wait-time guarantee from getting done.

Last week, provincial Health Minister Len Taylor called the $10 million cash incentives the federal government was offering provinces to sign on before the end of the month a "silly idea."

The $10 million is rolled into the $25 million Saskatchewan is getting, Taylor said.

Source: Canadian Press

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