Moe gov’t presided over the second highest death rate in Canada for residents on surgery waiting list
SASKATOON - Today, Official Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat and Rural and Remote Health Critic Matt Love responded to a new study conducted by independent research institute SecondStreet.org. The institute found that, of the provinces reporting, Saskatchewan had the second most people per capita population who died while waiting for a surgery.
“We know that more and more people are spending their final months in pain, and that’s just not acceptable,” said Love. “We have the longest waits for key procedures in Canada, so long that hundreds of people are dying each year due to the backlog. Our health system is going in the wrong direction.”
From 2022 to 2023, 402 Saskatchewan residents died while waitlisted for surgery. That is the second highest rate of deaths in Canada for residents on a surgical waiting list, at 336.5 per 1,000,000 population, and represents a 66% increase in deaths since 2018 when Scott Moe was first elected Premier. 28,361 Saskatchewan people are currently waitlisted for surgery.
Saskatchewan has the longest wait times in Canada for key procedures like knee and hip replacements.
“Moe and the Sask. Party are just throwing money at the issue without thinking about how to strengthen our public health system for the long term,” said Mowat. “After 16 years, this government is out of ideas and out of touch with what’s going on in our hospitals.”
SecondStreet.org says that the Moe government did not report how many Saskatchewan people have died while waiting for a diagnostic scan.
Saskatchewan people have also died while waiting for admission to hospital during long emergency room waits and EMS off-load delays.
“Solutions should and can be found in the public system,” said Mowat.
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