The provincial government announced Tuesday the transition to a single provincial health authority is now underway.
In a news release, the government announced a transition team is being assembled to include the Ministry of Health and clinical and health system leaders, all of whom will take on the job of developing a comprehensive plan to implement the new provincial health authority.
Their job will be to bring in a new governance and management structure, and also consider the consolidation of health system administration and clinical support services and potential savings from consolidation.
The government announced a week earlier they were accepting recommendations to consolidate the 12 regional health authorities into a single provincial unit. Prairie North Health Region is among those impacted.
In its latest news release, the province gave an estimate of potential savings in the range of $10 to $20 million by 2018-19.
Those include $700,000 a year in board governance costs, another $160 million per year spent on information technology across the health system (RHAs, Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, eHealth Saskatchewan and 3sHealth), and $9 million from the consolidation of information technology for RHAs.
A reduction in salary expenses for senior executive level positions is also anticipated, though exact numbers are still to be determined.
In a news release, Health Minister Jim Reiter noted the potential cost savings are an early estimate. Reiter also pledged the needs of patients would be a priority.
“As work begins on the transition, our goal is to ensure implementation occurs seamlessly and that the needs of patients are always our top priority,” Reiter said in a statement.
“This is a significant change and there is a lot of work to be done. Our government is taking a thoughtful and planned approach to ensure this is done right.”
Reiter also emphasized that cost savings are not their primary objective.
“The move to a single provincial health authority is being driven by our government’s continued commitment to improving front-line patient care for people across the province,” he said.
