On questionable operations

Buckdog points out the Wall government's plan to pay a premium to have Saskatchewan residents' surgeries performed in British Columbia. But since most of the discussion has focused on the impact for B.C. residents who will get pushed to the back of the line, it's worth expanding on what the consequences would be for Saskatchewan.

By favouring out-of-province surgeries rather than building capacity here, the Wall government would produce two results:
- an expectation that surgeries will be performed quickly regardless of the systemic consequences in terms of cost; and
- a lack of Saskatchewan public-sector capacity to actually perform those surgeries, as the case load which would otherwise provide a basis for expanding our own facilities is instead handled elsewhere (and at a premium price no less).

Now, it's well and good to say that there should be an expectation that medical procedures will be carried out reasonably quickly within the public health system. But any responsible government would be seeking to figure out how we can improve our current system to achieve that goal in the short and long term, rather than throwing money at another province in order to meet a single artificial deadline with no regard for what happens after that. And whether the ultimate problem is short-sightedness based on the Sask Party's arbitrary deadlines or an ideological desire to avoid building any public-sector capacity to do anything (see also the Sask Party's continued efforts to get SaskPower out of the business of actually generating power), all indications are that the Wall government is headed determinedly in the wrong direction.