SEVEN HEALTH REGIONS CLOSING IN ON SURGERY WAIT LIST TARGET

Seven out of the 10 Saskatchewan health regions that handle operating-room surgeries are within five per cent of their target this year, offering surgery within six months to all people who need it.

"The collaboration of thousands of health care providers involved in the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative has moved us closer to reaching this year's goal," Health Minister Dustin Duncan said. "We owe it to patients to work hard over the last half of the fiscal year and meet our surgical wait time goals."

Updated wait time information on www.sasksurgery.ca shows that in the six-month period ending July 31, 2012, most health regions continued to provide almost all surgeries within six months. Heartland Health Region has met the target and six other health regions are close to hitting the target of providing all surgeries within six months by March 31, 2013.

The number of people waiting for surgery fluctuates, based on the number of people diagnosed and booked for surgery and the number of surgeries performed. Regina Qu'Appelle has experienced a spike in planned orthopaedic surgeries, offsetting gains the health region made in the volume of surgeries performed. Results from a concerted effort to ramp up surgical capacity in the health region won't show up in wait time reductions for several months.

Since November 2007, the number of patients waiting more than a year for surgery has dropped 82 per cent. During that same time, the number waiting more than six months has dropped 58 per cent.

Wait times data continue to show that 97 per cent of patients in Saskatchewan have surgery within 12 months and 89 per cent within six months. There were 2,233 fewer patients waiting for surgery in Saskatchewan on July 31 than on the same date in 2011, a reduction of nine per cent.

The overall goals of the Surgical Initiative are to improve safety, efficiency and patient experiences and provide all surgeries within three months by March 31, 2014.

More information about the Surgical Initiative can be found at www.health.gov.sk.ca/surgical-initiative. Wait time data and other information for patients is available at www.sasksurgery.ca.

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For more information, contact:

Tyler McMurchy
Health
Regina
Phone: 306-787-4083