Prairie North Health Region is receiving $2,767,521 from the Saskatchewan government to improve the quality and safety of surgical care while increasing patients' access to surgery, according to a PNHR press release.
The region says the funding will enable the performance of 1,300 more surgeries at its surgical sites in the Battlefords, Lloydminster and Meadow Lake, enhance home care services and strengthen rehabilitation services for patients following their surgeries.
"We have made excellent progress under the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative toward our goal of offering patients safer surgery within three months," Health Minister Dustin Duncan said. "I want to acknowledge the incredible work being done in Prairie North Health Region to put the patient first by achieving lasting improvements in the quality and timeliness of surgical care."
"Prairie North Health Region welcomes the opportunity to continue to be a key player in the province's surgical initiative by once again accepting the challenge to increase our surgical volumes," said David Fan, PNHR CEO. "Much of the additional $2.7 million for PNHR will cover the incremental costs of staffing and supplies to expand the numbers of outpatient day surgeries.
"We are particularly excited about the enhancements the added SKSI funding enables us to make in home care and rehabilitation services," added Fan. "Delivering greater post-surgical nursing and therapy support for patients at home will allow them to recover more comfortably in their own environment with the care they need, while freeing acute care resources to perform surgeries sooner, safer and smarter."
The Saskatchewan government announced $70.5 million in its 2013-14 budget to equip health regions to continue to improve surgical care. According to the press release, the enhancements include better access to patient assessment and post-operative care, training for more operating room nurses and an increased volume of surgeries to reduce wait times. Collectively, health regions will provide 7,000 additional surgeries this year.
Since 2007, the number of Saskatchewan patients waiting more than six months for surgery has fallen 64 per cent and the number waiting more than three months has fallen 49 per cent, the release adds.
More information is available at: www.health.gov.sk.ca/surgical-initiative
