Nearly 20 per cent of Canadians don’t have a regular care provider.
With our new plan, we're working to address the challenges facing health care and improve health care access and outcomes for all Saskatchewan people.
Transforming
Patient Care
Health care isn't just a system- it's people who need care and those who provide it. These people- patients and health care workers- have been experiencing challenges and pressures that have become increasingly common across Canada. At the same time, the practice of medicine has been evolving, creating new opportunities to deliver care that were simply not possible a decade ago.
The path forward is clear: reinforce what is working, fix what is not, and modernize care so it meets patients where they are.
Invested in major health care capital projects since 2018 Nursing graduates hired since 2023 People with new access to a primary care provider within two years
the result of our nurse practitioner expansion
$2.3B
2,710
18,000
65,000 patients served at Regina's Urgent Care Centre
Expanding Access to Care
Connecting Saskatchewan people to the right care, in the right place, at the right time. From expanding the role of nurse practitioners to launching new primary care teams and urgent care centres, we're working to make sure every Saskatchewan resident has a regular care provider by 2028.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Have no limit to the number of provincial nurse practitioner, opening access for more providers to deliver publicly funded primary care across the province.
- Grow the nurse practitioner pipeline by adding 26 more training seats in Saskatchewan, increasing training capacity by 45%.
- Improve care for seniors by giving nurse practitioners the same opportunities as physicians to provide care for long-term care residents.
- Build fully functioning nurse practitioner-led primary care teams, allowing nurse practitioners to hire nurses, dietician's, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals.
- Strengthen emergency and urgent care capacity by enhancing nurse practitioners roles in emergency rooms and urgent care centres.
- Support RN career progression with $78,000 for training over two years, with a return-to-service contract for those pursuing nurse practitioner designation.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Launch an improved surgical specialist directory.
- Expand pathways focused on early treatment and stabilization to give patients more care options and reduce the need for surgery.
- Expand pooled referral systems province-wide, increasing efficiency and reducing wait times.
- Perform 450,000 surgeries over four years - targeted reduction in wait times to 90 days.
- Expand the scope of publicly funded surgeries that can be performed through provincial partnerships with private surgical providers.
- Accelerate recruitment of anesthesia professionals to support higher surgical volumes.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Add new diagnostic capacity through expansion such as the Estevan MRI.
- Modernize laboratory medicine, shortening turnaround times while increasing the number of lab tests that can be performed in the province.
- Continue expanding MRI, CT, and PET‑CT capacity.
- Work towards 2028 Target: 90% of patients receive diagnostic scans within 60 days.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Open 24 acute care beds and four ICU beds at St. Paul’s Hospital.
- Complete and staff 69 additional beds at Saskatoon City Hospital.
- Add six pediatric beds at Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital.
- Add 36 acute care beds and seven ICU beds at Royal University Hospital.
- Open three new NICU beds at Regina General Hospital.
- Complete construction on the Prince Albert Victoria Hospital, adding 57 acute care beds to the community.
Underway
- Improve emergency response capacity, including additional investments in paramedic staffing, continued bursaries and mental health supports.
900+ new training seats, 150 medical residency seats
Growing the Health Care Workforce
Recruiting, retaining and training the people who make care possible. With 1,880 nursing graduates hired and 900 new training seats created across 33 programs, we're working to make sure the care providers you need are there- where and when you need them.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Streamlining health recruitment by strengthening the mandate of the Saskatchewan Health Recruitment Agency (SHRA).
- Expanding Rural Physician Incentive Program to key regional centres.
- Maintaining and Expanding Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive for high priority health care classifications.
- Continuing the Graduate Retention Program and targeted physician/specialist incentives.
- Adding 20 more medical school seats and 10 more medical residency seats, prioritizing Saskatchewan students.
- Setting the admissions target for the College of Medicine at 95% Saskatchewan students.
- Introducing and expanding enhanced health care career pathways in high schools to grow the future workforce collaborating with Distance Learning Centre and school divisions.
- Continuing to add training seats in high-demand areas.
- Expanding rural training opportunities to improve long‑term
745,000 MySaskHealthRecord users & growing
Modernizing Care Delivery and Scope of Practice
Using innovation, technology, and common-sense change to bring care closer to patients. Expanded scope of practice, robot-assisted surgery and a provincial virtual care network will change how care is delivered- reducing travel, improving outcomes and reaching patients in every corner of the province.
Underway
- Introduce Canada‑leading scope expansion legislation across all regulated health professions.
- Broaden the roles for nurse practitioners, pharmacists, speech language pathologists, dietitians, optometrists, and others.
- Further expand scope for nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and paramedics and other professions.
- Continue to enable and support team-based primary care models.
- Develop additional urgent care centres, including new centres in Prince Albert, North Battleford, Moose Jaw, Regina, and Saskatoon.
- Implement virtual care, including virtual primary care for unattached patients and remote monitoring tools.
- Expand the Virtual Physician Program.
- Implement standardized staffing models for all health care workers.
- Remove unnecessary administrative barriers and artificial geographic restrictions that limit health care work across the province.
- Improve patient navigation through integrated virtual and in‑person care networks.
Independent third-party safety review underway
Improving Safe and Quality Care
Raising the bar for safe, accountable care and improving working conditions for care providers. From enhanced hospital security and screening to measures reducing staff overtime, we're working to make sure that every care environment is safe and supported.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Enhanced security services in five of eight new communities.
- Conduct a province‑wide safety and security review.
- Implement a province‑wide approach to staff development and improved HR processes.
- Examine health worker absenteeism through third-party attendance and return to work service – goal to reduce overtime and improve staff support.
- Reduce administrative burden for physicians to free up time for patient care.
$2.3B invested since 2018, more planned
Improving Facilities and Equipment
Building the health infrastructure and equipment that Saskatchewan needs for generations to come. With $2.3 billion invested in capital projects since 2018- and new hospitals, long-term care facilities and expansions underway- we're ensuring the physical foundation of health care is modern, resilient and built for patients.
Partially or Fully Achieved
- Reduce the community contribution for design and construction costs of new health care facilities from 20% to 10%.
- Prince Albert Victoria Hospital expansion is 50% constructed
- New hospitals in Weyburn (complete), Yorkton, and Rosthern
- Urgent Care Centres: Saskatoon (nearing completion), plan for Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, and second locations in both Regina and Saskatoon
- Build new long‑term care homes through third party design/build/own/operate community partnerships in Estevan and Watson.
- A new specialized 240‑bed long‑term care home in Regina
- Long Term Care facilities in La Ronge and Grenfell
- Esterhazy Integrated Healthcare Facility