With a backlog of postponed surgeries growing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial government announced on Thursday a plan to start catching up. 

To eliminate the backlog of surgeries, the government has set a target to perform 7,000 additional surgeries in 2022-2023, 6,000 additional surgeries in 2023-2024 and 5,000 surgeries in 2024-2025. 

“We are going to build on existing contracts with private surgical providers to increase the number and types of surgeries they can perform. This will give additional capacity to the SHA to perform more complex procedures,” said Health Minister Paul Merriman during a recent Provincial Emergency Operations Centre update. 

A request for information was put out by the government on Thursday to test the market for additional third-party surgical providers for day procedures, overnight inpatient surgeries, and post-operative care including therapies and home care. 

An emphasis is being put on surgeries such as hip and knee replacements, ear, nose and throat dental, and general surgeries. 

“There will be an emphasis on surgical procedures with higher numbers of long-waiting patients,” Merriman said. 

The province also announced a plan to expand ICU capacity from 79 beds to 90 by June of 2022. This is the first step in the government's plan to reach 110 ICU beds in the province. 

To achieve this goal, the Saskatchewan Health Authority is actively recruiting additional nurses and other intensive care team members. 

Saskatchewan Polytechnic has increased its seats to 144 in 2021-2022 for specialized critical care training.