Election 2011

Saskatchewan voters head to the polls Nov.7. Over the next three weeks Yorkton This Week will ask Yorkton constituency candidates a series of questions on issues of interest.

This is Week I, and the two declared candidates; Chad Blenkin of the New Democrat Party and Greg Ottenbreit of the Saskatchewan Party, answer questions pertaining to health care in our province

QUESTIONS: What do you see as the role of the Regional Health Centre in Yorkton moving forward? Would your party fund the new facility initiative, and if so, when would you expect that funding to come?

BLENKIN: The NDP believe the regional health centers play a pivotal role in the expanded delivery of health care and addressing unnecessarily long surgical wait times.
As your MLA I would work hard to provide adequate funding to the health region to provide adequate facilities, maintain current staffing levels, and maintain existing services so patients can receive treatment right here in Yorkton.

OTTENBREIT: As we move into the future, I see the Yorkton Regional Health Center continuing to deliver public health care, and striving to improve the care they provide to Yorkton and area. It is a very important facility, as it is the core of service for the region and the center of many health programs. The Saskatchewan Party Government supports the conceptual planning for a new or improved hospital that is underway now and I anticipate funding to follow once plans are approved. The NDP administration stood by a 65 per cent provincial, 35 per cent local cost sharing on new facilities, but our government recognized the need for more provincial support and changed the cost sharing formula to 80 per cent provincial and 20 per cent local. In the past we witnessed services minimized or discontinued, but over the past four years we have seen an expansion in the dialysis department, the start of the only heart and stroke program outside of Regina and Saskatoon, more efficient surgery center use with shortening wait times, an electronic diagnostic imaging program so information can be sent to experts for review, expanded cancer care including chemotherapy, and expanded Autism services, to name a few improvements. As your MLA, I will continue to work to improve our health services to meet the needs of patients and their families, especially our seniors who have done so much to build this province.

QUESTIONS: Doctors and health care retention and recruitment is an issue across the province, and in Yorkton specifically. What is the role of the province in this process? What will you/your government do in terms of the local situation given the strains of population growth?

BLENKIN: Although our platform has not been formally released, I can say that our Saskatchewan New Democratic Party is committed to expanding access to healthcare services. Our platform will contain initiatives to expand access to primary care, and to recruit and retain needed health professionals, like doctors and nurses, and more money to address surgical waits, particularly in regional centres.
The NDP believe physician recruitment should be done centrally by the province and not force municipalities into bidding wars amongst each other to attract doctors to their communities.

OTTENBREIT: While we recognize there is more work to do on recruitment and retention, in the four years of the Saskatchewan Party Government nearly 200 more doctors are now practicing in Saskatchewan. As well, our government recently launched the first ever provincial physician recruitment agency. The Physician Recruitment Agency of Saskatchewan (saskdocs.ca) is fully operational and is recruiting physicians to Saskatchewan. The province has a responsibility to educate physicians here, and recruit physicians to Saskatchewan, however it is difficult to match the "personalities" of physicians and their families to communities, and that is where the local recruitment influence plays a part. We have launched a made-in-Saskatchewan International Medical Graduate assessment program, so that we will be able to accept physicians from around the world, not only seven countries as under the previous administration. This new program will enhance our recruitment effort and be more responsive to Saskatchewan's needs. The medical profession is changing and new physicians are increasingly looking for a better work and family life balance. This is why our government is implementing more multi-physician clinics, using nurse practitioners, and encouraging teams of health care professionals to work together to benefit patients. As a government we have nearly doubled the number of physician training seats to 100, doubled the number of residency positions to 120 and we are training more doctors in rural communities to encourage them to consider rural practice after graduation. With more training in Saskatchewan we are more likely to keep our own medical students here at home. We have also ratified a new physician compensation agreement that offers incentives to practice in smaller centers like Yorkton and keeps Saskatchewan competitive with other jurisdictions.

QUESTIONS: Wait times for surgeries, and other procedures are still significant. What is your party's plan to address the issue? Do private facilities play a role? If so how?

BLENKIN: Our Party will provide funding for surgical care centres in regional Saskatchewan facilities so that residents can get the surgery they need closer to home. The NDP believes in a publicly-funded healthcare system, and would not expand the role of private facilities in our Province.

OTTENBREIT: I, like others, felt Saskatchewan patients had to wait far too long for surgery under the NDP government, that's why reducing wait times is a key priority for the Saskatchewan Party. Premier Brad Wall has committed to the ambitious goal of reducing waits to no more than 3 months by 2014. We have lots of work to do to meet our goal, but we are seeing improvements. Since 2007 wait times have been reduced by 74 per cent for those waiting over 18 months for surgery, while the number of patients waiting over 12 months has been reduced by 57 per cent. Using Lean measures and finding efficiencies in our system we have been able to make many improvements that ensure we are focused on meeting the needs of patients. By using third party providers within the public system we are reducing wait times, tackling the backlog of surgeries, and quickly adding much needed capacity. Our plan is to stay focused on a health system that puts patients first and is the best health care system possible.

QUESTIONS: While we think of Sask as having free health care, that is not the case in terms of dental, eye care, etc. Do you see an expansion of health care coverage as a voter concern? And is your party planning any such expansion?

BLENKIN: When the current government came into power, they defunded chiropractic care.
An NDP government would bring chiropractic care back into covered health
services. Watch for additional health care announcements.

OTTENBREIT: Health care in Saskatchewan, even with its challenges, is quite good when compared with the world, but it takes over 40 per cent of our entire provincial budget. Adding coverage for new drugs, procedures, and services needs to be balanced with efforts to make our system sustainable in the long-term. We recognize that our health system should meet the needs of the most vulnerable, that is why our specialized programs offer extra coverage benefits to low income families, children, seniors, and those facing high drug costs. I am pleased with our record of limiting drug costs for children and seniors, pursuing clinical trials for the M.S. Liberation Treatment, capping ambulance fees for seniors, and improving the range of Autism services. The Saskatchewan Party government will continue to improve health coverage to build a more patient centered, high quality health system.