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Study finds Sask. has Canada’s shortest surgery waits

Apr 26, 2016 | 5:29 PM

A new study shows that Saskatchewan has the shortest wait times for surgery in Canada.
 
This four years after an initiative was launched by the provincial government to get surgical wait times down to three months.
 
U of S professor Janice MacKinnon authored the “Learning from the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative to Improve Wait Times in Canada.” study for the Fraser Institute.

She said other provinces should model their policies on Saskatchewan’s.

“Basically, the focus shifted to the patient,” said MacKinnon.  “The initiative was ‘we’re going to have to get these people through the system more quickly and in order to do that we have to focus on them. The top of it was the commitment to making it happen. “
 
She said leadership was another reason the wait times came down.
 
“The provincial government boldly said in 2010 that by 2014 no person is going to wait more than three months for elective surgery,” said MacKinnon.  “So what that said to the whole system is ‘we are doing this and we are committed to this and going to make it happen.’”
 
Mackinnon said no province has tackled hanged the structural reasons that lead to the long wait times. The symptom has been dealt with which is the wait times.