Here's the one thing Sask. doctor organizations say would greatly improve health care in the province
Saskatchewan's two major physicians' organizations are asking the provincial government to devote a "significant portion" of new federal health care money to overhauling Saskatchewan's approach to family medicine.
"We believe every person deserves access to high-quality primary health care. We believe everyone who wants access to a 'medical home' — a team of primary health care professionals working together and led by a family physician — should have it," said Saskatchewan Medical Association president Dr. John Gjevre and Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians president Dr. Andries Muller in a joint statement shared with media.
Speaking on behalf of the organizations they represent, Gjevre and Muller call for a team-based approach to health care where nurses, mental health counsellors, pharmacists, nutritionists and physiotherapists work in collaboration to help patients with family physicians at the helm.
"Tinkering at the edges of our current system won’t cut it. We need to invest differently and organize primary health care differently if we are to provide Saskatchewan citizens with better access and quality of care," the physicians said.
"The ideas we want to implement are not novel; they have been informed by other high-performing health systems across the globe – ones that have purposefully organized around and prioritized investments in primary health care."
The joint message was released ahead of Wednesday's announcement that the province had reached a deal with the federal government which will see as much as $5.94 billion in additional money flow into Saskatchewan’s health care budget over the next decade.
Money the physicians say would be best spent on a revamp of health care on the ground level.
"Saskatchewan physicians believe a good first step would be to allocate a significant portion of the recently announced new funding from the federal government to supporting, stabilizing, and redesigning how family medicine and primary health care is delivered," Gjevre and Muller said.
"Frail and aging people may be better served by visits from the appropriate health care workers in their homes. Patients will receive the right care, at the right time, by the right member of the team.
"Physicians and health care professionals stand to benefit too, from reduced workloads and administrative burdens, which will improve their well-being and their capacity to keep serving the people of this province."
While the pair acknowledges the task may appear "daunting," they argue that the changes are necessary and will have far-reaching benefits.
"Improving how we deliver care in the community will provide more value for the tax dollars spent, potentially decreasing the load on emergency rooms, hospitals, and long-term care facilities, and giving people ready access to the most appropriate supports."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.