To say that Saskatchewan's health care system is in a state of flux is an understatement. It appears as if the hits just keep on coming, no matter what side of the political spectrum you happen to be on.
No one can deny the province is slowly and assuredly turning to the private sector to provide a good portion of health care service to our residents.
Proponents of private delivery paid for with public dollars are correct when they cite numerous instances where private companies or professionals provide the service for a fee. That type of service took a major step last year with the announcement that a Regina-based health clinic was going to perform minor surgeries for people using the Regina-Qu'Appelle Health Region's service. To date there have been about 170 surgeries completed.
We've also learned that a Regina-based radiology laboratory is expanding its services to include a CT scanner to help reduce wait times. They've signed a contract with the Regina health region and the ministry for 32 months of guaranteed use.
Again, depending on what side of the spectrum you find yourself on, these types of moves are either just fine, providing a needed service for a fee. And so far, and we emphasize so far, the costs are comparable; or they are the slippery slope to the ruination of medicare.
We see the value of allowing private corporations to enter the picture to alleviate the stress on the system. Medical care for profit, can and does work. Not efficiently, but it works. It comes with other provisos.
Let's move this evolving situation into the local circle for the sake of discussion.
For a few years now, a committee charged with the duty of promoting local health services has been telling anyone who cared to listen that a CT scan installed at St. Joseph's Hospital would, and could, be paid for with local dollars and help reduce wait times. We were allowed to do it with dialysis, after several delays.
But a private Regina clinic now gets to move ahead of the line. This is also the same clinic that provides other types of imaging operations and readings ... like ultrasounds which have been missing from the Estevan medical care system for four years now. It appears that the business of imaging in Sun Country Health Region has been handed off to this Regina company. If we want imaging service in Estevan, we will have to make the business case with them, not the public system, not Sun Country, not the Health Ministry. Private service, public dollars.
What are our chances? Just asking.
The new reality is that a private corporation is calling the shots. No public CEO or ministry can make them do what they don't want to do. Maybe they'll provide medical imaging services for Estevan, at a price, or maybe not. Nobody will be in a position to order them to do it, other than their own ownership/administration. Certainly not ours.
In other words, a third party will be planning the scanning and 300 expectant mothers in Estevan will be required to travel to Regina, Moose Jaw, or on occasion, to Weyburn when the service is available, to get their ultrasound service. Crazy but true.
A CT scanning service in the southeast seems further away than ever.
An ultrasound service, not just for pregnancies, but for others too, that did appear to be a possibility at one time, now seems to be less attainable, at least under a publicly driven system.
From a business perspective, we see the picture clearly. A Regina-based service has no desire to decentralize and with new contracts in place, they won't have any incentive to, other than profits.
The rural masses will be forced to continue to migrate to the two major cities to receive the bulk of their health care service while outlying health regions will be urged to continue with a "make-do" motto.
This is the future as we see it.
Even with an inevitable move to just two provincial health regions, the rural sectors (meaning anyplace outside Regina and Saskatoon) will continue to be regarded as second and third class passengers.
Nothing we have seen or heard in the past three years indicates anything different.
