A new report released this week reveals that for-profit health care contracts accompanied growing health care wait times, despite the provincial government having promised the opposite. The various private, for-profit strategies to reduce surgical and diagnostic wait times have not been effective, and it was through the significant investment in the public system which resulted in the most significant reduction in health care wait times.
The report, “No Time to Wait: Private, For-Profit Health Care and Wait Times in Saskatchewan”, was conducted by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It found that over the past 14 years, the most dramatic wait time reductions for surgeries took place during the period when the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative was focussed on investing in expanding and building capacity in the public system. It also found that the provincial government’s one-for-one MRI and CT scan initiative has not significantly reduced diagnostic wait times.
“This report confirms what we have know for years – quick fix privatization schemes don’t work. The evidence is clear, privatization of health services costs more, doesn’t cut wait times, and pulls scarce health care workers from our already short-staffed public system,” said Kent Peterson, president of CUPE Saskatchewan.
“I worked on the frontlines in diagnostics for years. Year after year, things are getting worse,” said Bashir Jalloh, president of CUPE 5430. “It’s clear these privatization efforts are making things worse for patients and for health care workers on the frontlines. We need significant investment into our health system to address retention issues and the short-staffing crisis – both of which are at the heart of the wait time crisis.”
“Despite the Saskatchewan Party government’s preference for private-sector solutions to the wait time problem, the only significant reduction in wait times came through public investment in the capacity of the public system,” said Simon Enoch, Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Saskatchewan Office. “This government likes to argue that when it comes to our public health care system, they are only concerned with “results”. Well, the results are in, private solutions to our health care crisis are not working. Let’s return to what does – public investment in our public health care system to prioritize medical need over private wealth.”
