Health ministry says Sask. saw highest-ever surgical volume in 2023-24

Saskatchewan set a surgical record recently, the Ministry of Health says, with more than 95,700 procedures performed over 12 months.

According to the ministry, the record for the highest number of surgeries in a 12-month period was set between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, surpassing a similar record set last year by nearly 6,000 surgeries.

During a news conference at the University of Saskatchewan, Health Minister Everett Hindley said the number of joint replacement procedures performed this year is actually 50 per cent higher than the pre-COVID annual volumes in 2019 and in 2020.

“Volumes for hip and knee replacement surgeries have increased significantly over the previous year, with nearly 800 more procedures,” he said. Hindley did acknowledge that at its peak, there were nearly 36,000 patients in the province waiting for surgery- but there have been targets set to get the numbers closer to pre- pandemic levels.

“We want to be able to make sure that with the teams that we do have, the staff that we do have, and the funding that we’re putting towards this, that we’re maximizing our operating room time. That we’re maximizing the time of our surgeons and our surgical teams to make sure they’re doing as much as possible, as realistically (as) possible,” he added.

And in the next fiscal year, a target of 100,000 surgeries has already been set.

“(It’s) A very aggressive target, and knowing we need to do that in collaboration – in consultation with – our surgical teams to make sure that these are achievable targets,” said Hindley.

That, said the minister, will be accomplished through recruitment and retention programs and strategies, along with training more health care workers in the province.

“We’ve created some new incentives to recruit people to our province, to be able to make sure that we’re competitive when it comes to salaries and benefits, and competition with other province, because we know it is competitive,” he explained.

Hindley also cited new ideas like a “pool referral system,” where patients on a waiting list are referred to the next available surgeon in a pool of doctors. A centralized referral intake for hip and knee replacements was recently launched in Saskatchewan in an effort to speed up those procedures even further.

Surgical waiting lists are also growing shorter, the ministry added, with a 14 per cent drop in patients awaiting a procedure compared to the end of March, 2023.

Dr. Michael Kelly, head of surgery for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said he credits the increase in surgeries to “the overall commitment” by all members of the province’s surgical teams.

“Their dedication is what has made reaching this milestone possible,” Kelly said in a statement. “As a surgical program we want to continue to empower the people of Saskatchewan to be more engaged in their own unique surgical journey.”

Of the surgeries performed in Saskatchewan, about 15 per cent are normally completed by a private, publicly funded surgical provider. But that number has increased to roughly 18 per cent as the government pushes ahead to reduce wait times and tackle long backlogs that built up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The province is aiming to increase those numbers even further this year, with an additional $2.28 million in the recent budget earmarked for boosting surgical volumes.

“Strategies to increase surgical capacity include developing focused improvements on orthopedics, investing in health human resources and expanding involvement of private sector partners in surgical service delivery,” the ministry added.