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REGINA — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe released a plan Monday that aims to bolster patient care with a focus on nurse practitioners, private surgeries and virtual appointments.
Moe told a news conference the “Patients First” plan seeks to reduce surgery wait times to three months and lower diagnostic wait times to two months by 2028.
To achieve these goals, the province is to expand diagnostic services and use more private surgery clinics that perform publicly funded procedures, he said.
“We have listened to people across the province, listened to patients, listened to families and listened to providers … and we have heard you,” the premier told reporters in Saskatoon.
The 25-page plan says the province intends to “expand the scope” of private providers to deliver publicly funded surgeries. Currently, such providers can do surgeries on joints, eyes and the vascular system.
To shorten diagnostic turnaround times, the report says Saskatchewan will modernize laboratories and expand the capacity of scanners, including by adding an MRI machine in Estevan.
On nurse practitioners, it says there will be “no limit” on expanding their contracts to deliver care.
The province is to test team-based models led by nurse practitioners, the report says. It is also to add 26 more nurse practitioner training spots in colleges, and registered nurses looking to pursue an education in the field are eligible for grants.
The report also lays out a program that would make virtual care visits available to all residents, though the initiative would roll out to certain communities first.
The province plans to also build more urgent care centres in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and North Battleford to lessen the strain on hospitals.
“This is the start of the conversation, but I would say that this plan we’re putting forward today is comprehensive,” Moe said.
Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill called the move “really exciting stuff” for nurse practitioners and communities in need of more primary care options.
“I want to say this very clearly to families and patients — we’ve heard you, and standing still is no longer an option,” Cockrill said.
The Opposition NDP slammed the Saskatchewan Party’s plan as one that rehashes an old proposal.
New Democrats pointed to a 2012 plan that also billed itself as putting patients first. It had promised to connect all residents to a family care team with a physician. It also promised surgeries in less than three months.
“Why didn’t this government keep its 2012 health-care promises to the people of Saskatchewan?” health critic Meara Conway told the legislative assembly. “Why should people believe that this time it’s going to be any different here?”
Cockrill told the assembly the plan should be taken seriously.
“That side talks about ideas. This side actually comes up with ideas and executes,” he said.
Conway took aim at Cockrill’s comment of “standing still,” arguing the province should have always been moving.
Cockrill later told reporters he thinks governments have been paralyzed in making changes.
“When you’re concerned about upsetting this group or upsetting that group, there’s a bit of paralysis there,” he said.
“Oftentimes the discussions around health care are kind of an either or … privately delivered or more publicly delivered. What I hear from patients, day in and day out, is ‘We don’t care.'”
He said Saskatchewan is hiring more health-care staff and doing more surgeries than before. The report cites a 30 per cent increase in surgeries since 2020, adding 155 more acute care beds and contracting 30 nurse practitioners.
Conway, whose party supports more nurse practitioners and virtual care, said she’s not convinced privatization has made measurable differences.
“If you look at the results, the case for privatization just isn’t there,” she said. “We see these contracts going to their donors, often very lucrative contracts, with very little transparency.”
Cockrill said private surgery centres can do double the number of cataract procedures than those in hospitals.
“When you’re setting up and you’re doing the same surgery over and over and over again, I think that is an opportunity to move that out of the hospital and save those operating room times for those patients,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2026.
Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press
