{"id":232331,"date":"2025-10-22T16:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232331\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:47:15","slug":"surgery-patients-have-more-options-due-to-new-expanded-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232331\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgery patients have more options, due to new expanded partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a growing list of surgeries in the province that won\u2019t require an overnight stay, due to an expanded partnership between the Saskatchewan Health Authority<\/a> (SHA) and Surgical Centres Inc. (SCI).<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the two organizations announced they were renewing and expanding their partnership, which started in 2012.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/p>\n

In those 13 years, SCI has performed more than 181,000 procedures in Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

Before the partnership was renewed, SHA CEO Andrew Will said SCI offered a range of day surgeries, including ophthalmology, pediatric dental, urology, plastics and vascular surgery.<\/p>\n

Now, those offerings have been expanded to include orthopedic surgeries, which require an overnight stay and gynecology procedures.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said adding these two types of surgeries frees up hospital space, ensuring there\u2019s room for patients with more complex needs and those who require overnight stays.<\/p>\n

Currently, SCI operates two locations in the province: Prairieview Surgical Centre in Saskatoon and Regina Surgical Centre. There\u2019s no plan to expand SCI\u2019s offerings into other cities, yet.<\/p>\n

\"Saskatoon<\/a><\/p>\n

Even with the expanded scope of SCI\u2019s two centres, Cockrill said there are no plans to expand, yet. \u201cIn terms of improving access for people of this province to a surgery right now, the focus is Regina and Saskatoon, but we are not opposed to expanding that,\u201d he said. (Marija Robinson\/650 CKOM)<\/p>\n

Cockrill said it\u2019s going to call for more communication between the province and SCI to prevent capacity challenges<\/a> in his response to whether keeping the same number of centres will result in a backlog in patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty optimistic with a long-time partner like SCI, that we\u2019re going to be able to navigate any challenges that come and continue to offer more surgeries in the province,\u201d he said, adding that it\u2019ll be important to manage the workload of surgeons as those working in SCI are also staffed in hospitals.<\/p>\n

The new contract is set for five years, with two one-year renewal options.<\/p>\n

According to Cockrill, if the province ends up doing the full seven years, the cost will be roughly $177 million, or a little over $25 million a year.<\/p>\n

Compared to the current contract, it increases the price of continuing SCI\u2019s operations by about $10 million dollars more per year.<\/p>\n

Cockrill said this increase in costs reflects the growing number of surgeries SCI performed, and also the rising costs faced by medical facilities.<\/p>\n

Access matters<\/p>\n

For Dr. Paul Murphy, Department Head and Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Saskatchewan\u2019s College of Medicine, SCI\u2019s work has made a huge difference in his patients\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Murphy said that a lot of the work in his department involves cataract surgeries, and for many patients, having timely access to this procedure is about more than bettering their vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about safety, independence and being able to do the things that make life meaningful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Without the operation, some patients struggle with everyday tasks, including driving and walking, because their vision is so bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen surgery is delayed, their world starts to shrink. But, when they get timely surgery, life opens back up again, and that\u2019s why access matters,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

The renewal and expansion of the partnership with SCI is part of the province\u2019s strategy to complete 450,000 surgeries in the next four years, spanning from 2025 until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a growing list of surgeries in the province that won\u2019t require an overnight stay, due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-232331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}