Ottenbreit speaks about health consolidation

The health regions in this province are going away, replaced by a single health authority, and Minister of Rural and Remote Health Greg Ottenbreit spoke at a recent Chamber of Commerce luncheon about the changes coming into effect for the province.

It’s still early in the process, and the final look of the province’s eventual one region has not been decided yet. The plan is to see the board in place by the fall, Ottenbreit explains, and they want to go as quickly as they can, but not so fast that they fall into the same traps that were encountered in Alberta and other jurisdictions.

There will be budget savings thanks to the move, specifically cutting back on the cost of administration as well as some IT consolidation. Ottenbreit expects to see $10-20 million in savings in 2018/19 thanks to the consolidation, with the reduction coming largely through the reduction of executive salaries once severance pay is given out.

Ottenbreit does emphasize that even with the savings, going down to one region is not a cash-driven initiative. He is more interested in reducing the number of barriers in the province and between the facilities in each region.

In his speech, he pointed to an example from an EMT, pointing out how if they travel between regions, IVs will be replaced when they reach their destination. While he praises the people operating the current health regions for their work, he believes going to a single health authority will reduce those boundaries and make it easier to care for patients.

“It’s more about making sure we have a system that thinks and acts as one. We see that now – and I’ll give full credit to the region structure as it is, they do a great job under our direction... We still have a system, because of the region structure, there are those boundaries in place. It’s hard sometimes to get something that is happening quite successfully in a region into a neighbouring region or somewhere further outside of that. As a minister, I’ll admit, it’s frustrating sometimes to see these great projects that it’s hard to get throughout the system.”

Saskatchewan is among the last provinces to reduce the number of health regions, and Ottenbreit believes this is to the province’s advantage, as it allows Saskatchewan to sidestep the problems encountered in other jurisdictions and learn from the mistakes made elsewhere. Admitting that he had some trepidation about the recommendations before he read the report, he believes the province can move towards a single region without making the same mistakes other jurisdictions have made.