SASKATOON, Sask. — The Saskatchewan NDP unveiled the first part of what it calls an ambitious and bold health-care plan, promising major changes to improve access to care and restore the province’s reputation as the birthplace of medicare if given the chance to form government.
NDP Shadow Ministers Meara Conway (health) and Jared Clarke (rural and remote health) joined Opposition leader Carla Beck on Wednesday, Oct. 21, outside St. Mary’s Wellness and Education Centre to announce the plan.
Beck said the plan was developed through what she described as the largest health-care consultation in Saskatchewan’s history, involving thousands of conversations with health-care workers, professionals, families, advocates and residents.
She said the plan is ambitious but necessary to address the challenges facing the province’s health-care system, with a central promise to guarantee Saskatchewan residents access to a doctor and address the difficulties many people face in finding a primary-care provider.
Beck said the party wants to end what she described as a “lottery” residents face when seeking primary care, and that if an NDP government is elected, parents would no longer spend months trying to find a doctor for their children. Seniors would have access to the care they need.
She argued that the provincial government’s current approach focuses too heavily on managing crises rather than preventing problems, and pointed to projected health-care spending of $8.6 billion this year, saying that despite the record investment, many residents continue to experience worsening outcomes.
Beck criticized the government, led by the Saskatchewan Party, which has been in power for about 20 years, saying it had run out of ideas and lost sight of the people it serves. She said the NDP is presenting a credible alternative that can rebuild public trust.
While acknowledging that health-care systems across Canada face difficulties, Beck argued that Saskatchewan could once again become a national leader, that meaningful change is necessary and that achieving it would require a change in government.
Retaining successful programs
Clarke, however, said the NDP’s plan, if the party is elected to government, would build on successful health-care programs already operating in the province, expanding access to initiatives that have benefited patients in some communities to ensure residents across Saskatchewan can access effective services regardless of where they live.
Clarke pointed to team-based primary-care initiatives in communities such as Meadow Lake and Swift Current as examples of programs worth retaining and expanding. While these approaches work in some areas, he said access remains uneven across the province.
“Good things are happening, absolutely, our health-care workers in this province are second to none,” Clarke said, highlighting the contributions of health-care professionals and the innovative ideas they brought forward during consultations over the past year.
He added that the NDP’s plan was developed through consultations with patients, health-care workers and other stakeholders, with the party seeking to incorporate their experiences and concerns into its proposals. Clarke said the intention is not to discard everything currently in place, but to identify effective approaches and make them available to more Saskatchewan residents.
Clarke emphasized that expanding access to existing successful initiatives would be an important part of improving the province’s health-care system. He outlined elements of the party’s proposed plan designed to address barriers to care in rural, remote and northern communities.
Under a component called “the bridge,” the NDP proposes expanding the 8-1-1 health information line, telehealth and virtual care, community paramedicine and mobile nursing services. These services would help residents access health-care expertise closer to home, particularly when certain medical services are located far from their communities.
Clarke said this could reduce unnecessary hospital trips, help people stay home longer and improve access to appropriate care. He stressed that virtual services and mobile health professionals should complement existing health-care capacity rather than replace it. The approach would let communities share resources across regions and help patients connect with providers without always travelling long distances.
Another key component, called “the backbone,” would be a connected health information system that allows patients’ medical records to follow them wherever they receive care. He criticized the government’s efforts to digitize health care, arguing that the province has spent billions of dollars on the process since 2009 without delivering a fully connected system, and the current gaps force patients to repeat their medical histories, contribute to duplicated diagnostic tests and prevent health-care workers from accessing information when they need it.
“The backbone of our plan is a connected health information system that allows patients and providers to have the information that they need when they need it,” said Clarke, summarizing the proposal as “one patient, one record, one connected system,” arguing that better information-sharing would help providers make timely decisions and improve continuity of care.
He added that while the province may not be able to place every type of health-care professional in every community, it can make their expertise more accessible through local teams, regional hubs, virtual care and mobile services.
Clarke said the proposals are part of a broader NDP vision to improve primary care and address longstanding access gaps across Saskatchewan, noting that the party’s health-care consultation had already produced an interim report outlining five principles for reform.
He said the plan reflects what residents have asked for and called for Saskatchewan to become a health-care leader, with services people can rely on no matter where they live. He added that further proposals on recruiting and retaining health-care professionals are expected to follow.
Based on successful models
Conway said the proposed health-care plan would prioritize primary care, expand team-based services and improve co-ordination between providers to ensure more residents can access a doctor, building on successful models already operating in Saskatchewan and other provinces and aiming to make those services available to more people.
She emphasized that the health-care plan does not need to reinvent the system but instead expand approaches that have already demonstrated success, pointing to community clinics, the Associate Family Physicians Clinic in Swift Current, All Nations Healing Hospital and several Saskatchewan Health Authority-run primary-care centres as examples of collaborative care models.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We need to incentivize team-based collaborative care,” Conway said, adding that the NDP would identify areas with the greatest need and expand services there first. The initiatives demonstrate the potential of health-care teams working together, but access remains limited to certain communities.
A key part of the proposal involves establishing a system in which residents are connected to a primary-care provider rather than having to find one independently. Conway said people without a family doctor would be assigned a navigator to help match them with an appropriate provider.
“No more fending for yourself. The burden is no longer on the individual,” said Conway, citing Ontario as an example of what could be achieved, noting that the province had successfully connected 180,000 people with primary care in one year under a similar approach.
Conway also highlighted the plan’s proposed health-care hubs, which would connect primary-care teams with additional services, including home care, mental-health and addictions support, diagnostic services, allied health professionals and social work.
She said the goal is not necessarily to create an entirely new network of services, but to ensure existing programs communicate and work together more effectively. She argued that disconnected services make it harder for family physicians to refer patients and for residents to access the support they need.
On funding, Conway said Saskatchewan spends $8.6 billion annually on health care, but argued that more attention must be given to how those dollars are allocated. She estimated that only about five per cent of the overall health-care budget goes toward primary care, which she said is insufficient.
“This is about priorities,” Conway said, emphasizing that the NDP wants to make primary care the foundation of the system and ensure existing health-care spending is used more effectively. She also said the party would support nurse practitioners as part of collaborative teams, with appropriate resources and working conditions, rather than simply replacing family physicians with other providers.
Conway said the NDP would report publicly on the results of its proposed changes. She argued that expanding access to primary care would help Saskatchewan improve patient outcomes and reduce pressure on hospitals and emergency departments.
