SASKATOON — The province’s health officials announced Thursday an administrative restructuring that will redirect resources to frontline care and strengthen clinical leadership, as part of ongoing efforts to streamline management and ensure a more responsive health-care service.
The administrative restructuring will also aim to ensure rural and northern communities, faced with staffing challenges, become more efficient and patient-centred. The reorganization will be funded by $10.4 million in annual efficiencies generated through reducing senior administrative overhead.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority, following a comprehensive review of its out-of-scope leadership and administrative structure, identified the need for adjustments. Specifically, $6.2 million will be directed to supporting patient care priorities across the health system, while $4.2 million will be reinvested to enhance local clinical leadership in rural and northern communities.
The improvements include adding 14 new full-time, on-site clinical managers for multi-service facilities and nine new full-time on-site clinical managers responsible for overseeing multiple locations. Additionally, four on-site clinical managers will be based in rural communities to provide oversight of professional practice, education and resources within designated health networks.
The SHA added that the enhancements will transition existing part-time roles to full- or near full-time positions in 20 communities, in order to increase on-site clinical manager leadership capacity and presence. The 27 new and 20 enhanced clinical manager positions will target 45 rural and northern communities.
These positions are designed to ensure that leadership is physically present and directly accessible in the facilities where care is delivered. The goal is to create a more balanced and responsive management structure, improving outcomes for patients and working conditions for staff.
SHA chief executive officer Andrew Will said the decision on administrative restructuring reinforces the authority’s intent to focus on administrative efficiency without disrupting core clinical services, and reflects its commitment to building a sustainable, integrated and patient-needs-focused leadership structure for health teams and communities.
“These changes allow us to reinvest directly into areas that support the delivery of high-quality care while strengthening leadership where it is needed most: at the point of care. Strengthening point-of-care leadership will not only help us manage more effectively, but also create an environment where our care teams can thrive,” said Will.
“We've designed the structure to support point-of-care leadership. There are, in fact, two parts to that. One is a rebalancing of the span of control for leaders, how many staff report to them, but also investments in new positions that are funded through the administrative efficiencies we've found through more senior leadership reductions and other administrative savings as well.”
Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the SHA is reallocating resources tied to senior, out-of-scope positions and moving them to frontline roles in communities throughout the province. There will be no in-scope unionized job losses as a result of these changes.
"I commend the SHA for this review and the well-considered steps to better use resources, strengthen local leadership, and provide stronger support to health teams and communities. These changes are an important part of the province’s work to build a more efficient and integrated health system—one that puts patients first and ensures our healthcare professionals have the support they need to deliver the best possible care,” said Cockrill.
“Hearing directly from health-care workers, from patients that they want to see more resources in facilities around the province, that's what this is all about. I trust Andrew [Will] and the SHA to manage the necessary work at a leadership level. Still, the people of this province want to make sure that there are more resources in facilities right across the province, and this announcement today marks how we're going to be rolling that out over the next several months.”
