SHA reopens specialty clinics
Surgical capacity being increased to 65-70% of pre-pandemic levels
The next phase of the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s (SHA) plan to resume medical services is set to start on Tuesday with the return of specialty clinics.
The second phase of the strategy also includes increasing the number of surgeries and MRI and CT scans performed.
The clinics allowed to reopen in this phase include cardiac stress testing, outpatient heart monitoring, sleep disorder testing, eye testing and dermatology.
Surgical capacity is expected to increase to 65 per cent to 70 per cent of levels prior to the shutdown of medical services in March in response to the COVID -19 pandemic, Health Minister Jim Reiter told reporters on Wednesday.
“Of course, our goal is to return to full capacity as soon as safely possible,” Reiter said at an afternoon briefing. “But it’s not yet business as usual. Our health services require new safety measures to ensure protections are in place against COVID-19.”
The resumption of medical services to address a backlog of thousands of procedures in the province began on May 19.
Since then, more than 330 services have resumed, SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said.
Officials were unable to supply the numbers of backlogged procedures or an estimate of how much postponed procedures have been reduced. Surgeries in Regina and Saskatoon have reached levels of about half of what they were prior to March, but the Yorkton Regional Health Centre has hit the 75 per cent mark, according to a government news release.
The SHA is targeting 90 per cent of PRE-COVID-19 capacity for medical scans. MRI and CT scans have increased from 50 per cent of previous levels to 83 per cent since they resumed. There have been more than 122,000 virtual medical appointments since March, Livingstone said.
Virtual care could continue past the end of the pandemic, he added.
The SHA’S plan includes two more phases to restore all medical services, but neither has been assigned a start date. The SHA looks at two to three weeks between phases, Livingstone said.
Reiter and Livingstone said field hospitals being built in Regina and Saskatoon at a combined cost of about $8 million should allow health services to continue to operate in the event of a second wave of COVID -19. Reiter called the field hospitals an “insurance policy.”
The province announced two new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, one in the Saskatoon region and one in the south region, to bring the total cases to 658. Active cases rose to 21 with no new recoveries.
Active cases in Saskatoon are now at seven, the same as the hardhit far north region. One diagnosed patient remains in hospital in intensive care.
Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, said over the past week two cases have been linked to international travel and another case has been linked to interprovincial travel.
Saskatchewan’s testing rate per one million people of 40,229 remains well behind the national rate of 52,029. Since Saskatchewan expanded its testing criteria on May 25’ touted at the time as the most expansive in Canada, daily tests have never exceeded 800 and three times have fallen below 300.
Livingstone praised the province’s testing strategy, but admitted they are not hitting the anticipated numbers.
“So in the upcoming days we will be increasing our public communication around testing to try to reduce anxiety around what the process involves as well as reducing stigma attached to getting tested,” he said.
The expanded criteria for testing includes anyone working outside the home and anyone who has returned to work as part of the province’s plan to reopen the economy.
Earlier Wednesday, the NDP Opposition expressed concerns about the announcement from the government this week that elementary and high school students will return to classrooms in the fall.
NDP education critic Carla Beck said in an online news conference that she has “cautious optimism” about the return to education in schools, but many questions remain.
Education Minister Gord Wyant said on Tuesday that guidelines are expected next week. Beck said overcrowded classrooms are already an issue in 70 per cent of school divisions.
Local school divisions should decide how they want to proceed, but the province should cover any extra costs, Beck said. “This will be a different plan for different divisions,” she said.