On progress

The pattern of good news in Saskatchewan health care continues, as Saskatchewan Health reports a major reduction in the province's waiting lists:

The number of patients sitting on surgical waiting lists in the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region and Saskatoon dropped by nearly 1,600 last year compared to 2004-05, the report states, noting in 2005-06 the two regions completed about 2,000 more surgeries than the previous year.

The annual report also indicates the seven largest regions performed more than 19,000 surgeries in the first three months of this year, an increase year-over-year of nearly 1,000 cases...

Sask. Health has also made some headway in improving access to diagnostic imaging services last year. Since March 2004 the total number of people waiting for an MRI has decreased provincially by 35.6 per cent.

According to the department's annual report the province increased the number of MRI exams it performs by 22 per cent last year for a total of more than 19,600 and increased its CT exam capacity by 14,400 for a total of about 105,000 or a 16-per-cent increase over the previous year.

With the increased capacity within the system obviously being used to great effect, it looks like the province's waiting lists will be reduced to almost nothing in the public health-care system well before it would even be possible to add a competing private system to supposedly speed up the process. Kudos to Sask Health for having made so much progress to date. And while there's still much to be done, I for one look forward to seeing just how much better yet the system will work in the future once today's investments have had time to fully take effect.