One health board about more than eliminating fat – Regina Leader-Post

January 6, 2017

Saskatchewan health care has long been ripe for big and bold changes.

However, the dangers of the Saskatchewan Party government plan to move to a single provincewide health authority is that it could make existing big problems even bigger:

• A system already unresponsive to local needs and issues could become even less nimble.
• A system already lacking accountability could become even less accountable because we still won’t have a health ombudsman and will now be even more reliant on a Quality Health Council that hasn’t exactly demonstrated its independence from government.

That said, the Saskatchewan Advisory Panel on Health System Structure’s decision to recommend replacing the existing 12 Regional Health Authority fiefdoms with a single Provincial Health Authority is a sound one that should, as advertised, find efficiencies in information technology, ambulance care, supply purchase and — most critically — management.

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