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Some Saskatchewan patients are still travelling out of province for health care, though the Government of Saskatchewan has been making strides in improving access within the province.
Two years ago this month, Kaitlyn Soron and her husband visited the Regina Legislature to speak about her young daughter’s gastrointestinal health issues and having no appropriate health specialists in Saskatchewan to assess her needs for care.
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Today, Soron’s daughter is receiving care from a regular specialist in Saskatoon.
“We couldn’t be more happy and grateful,” Soron said.
Soron’s daughter has struggled with gastrointestinal health concerns since birth. When the medical specialist she saw left Saskatoon and there were no other specialists who could treat her daughter in the province, the family was left without care.
In 2024, Soron said their family wasn’t getting answers on the best treatment for their daughter and because of the lack of availability of specialists and testing, they weren’t able to move forward with a plan to best manage her care.
“It was just simply that her quality of life was being affected dramatically, as was our entire family’s,” Soron explained.
“When we tried to get care for her, we were told that unless she basically had system failure of her gastrointestinal tract that we weren’t going to be seen out of province, and so that was frustrating for us,” Soron said.
When the province put the Pediatric Out-of-Province Travel Assistance Program in place on April 1, 2024, Soron said they didn’t qualify, and Alberta refused to see Soron’s daughter.
While the Ministry of Health told Soron that her daughter’s medical expenses would be covered, the cost of the trip would be up to their family.
“Ultimately, they (the Government of Saskatchewan) weren’t doing their piece and replacing the physician, and so we felt like that financial burden shouldn’t fall on us,” Soron said.
However, after speaking at the legislature on April 10, 2024, a donor reached out to Soron and offered to pay for her family to travel to Toronto, where her daughter needed to go for care.
“I’m still so grateful for it,” Soron said.
Now, a new specialist has come to Saskatoon. Soron called them “amazing.
“We just feel like we’re in the absolute best of hands,” she said. “The care we received at the hospital was amazing. The whole team is wonderful.”
She said her family is grateful for the successful outcome of the situation.
“I know any mom would do the same thing for their child, but I do think that a lot of my hard work did pay off and I think that the government really heard my concerns,” she said.
“I feel so lucky that now we have a program here and it’s benefiting so many kids, and it means less trips out of province.”
Soron said she is proud of the efforts she and her family went to to advocate for her daughter’s care. However, she is disappointed that it took so much effort and advocacy to ensure her daughter could receive the care she needed.
“We’re really encouraged by the progress and the creation of these resources and the physicians that are here and we just really hope that the work continues forward. It was a really long, hard journey, and it was exhausting and it was defeating, but it was worth it all.”
She encouraged parents to never stop advocating for their own children, saying the stress of that work is worth it, even reflecting back on her own frustrating experiences.
How many people are travelling out of province?
According to the Government of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health, 445 trips for medical care have been approved through the Pediatric Out-of-Province Travel Assistance Program since it began and families have been reimbursed $554,000.
Those numbers reflect an increase of 26 trips approved since Feb. 12, when the province reported 419 trips had been approved at a total of $513,000.
The Ministry of Health reported that 442 total requests have been made to the program. Reasons why a request might not have been approved included the availability of a sub-specialty in Saskatchewan or being over the age limit for the program.
The program assists families by reimbursing some costs associated with travelling outside of Saskatchewan for medical treatment. Children under the age of 16 with a valid Saskatchewan health card and their family can be eligible.
Approved pediatric patients and one parent or guardian eligible for assistance with those travel expenses could receive up to $2,000 per trip.
According to the Government of Saskatchewan’s website, the program is not intended to cover all costs for families, but “to reduce the financial impact on children and their families who have to seek medical treatment or diagnostic testing out-of-province when the medical services are not provided in Saskatchewan.”
On March 9, the province released its Patients First Health Care Plan, outlining its “commitment to transform health care by improving access and bringing care closer to home,” according to an emailed statement from the Ministry of Health. The 2026-27 budget announced on March 18 put health spending dollars largely into fulfilling that plan.
The province pointed to the plan as highlighting the “incredible progress” that has been made in recent years, “including successes in recruitment for highly-needed specialists and physicians.”
In the statement, the province highlighted that it has prioritized more anesthesiologists, psychiatrists, surgeons and pediatric sub-specialities practising in the province, including 21 pediatric sub-specialists recruited to Saskatchewan since April 1, 2024.
The province also referenced its new Patients First Health Care plan — announced by Premier Scott Moe on March 9 — which it said “highlights the incredible progress we have made over the past several years, including successes in recruitment for highly-needed specialists and physicians.”
Though requested, the province would not provide specifics on which medical specialists are still needed in Saskatchewan and which specialities presently have wait lists.
“This has helped stabilize and support pediatric gastroenterology services and patients are now no longer required to travel out of province and are able to access care close to home,” the province’s statement said.
It highlighted that Saskatchewan has “one of the best physician compensation rates in the country,” with the province recording an 80 per cent increase in the number of licensed physicians between 2007 and 2025. That increase of 1,400 doctors marks a 62 per cent increase in general practitioners and a 103 per cent increase in specialists, the province stated.
“Our efforts continue to ensure all residents will have a primary care provider — physician or nurse practitioner — by the end of 2028,” the Ministry of Health’s statement read.
Concerns voiced, but improvements being made
Saskatchewan has had its share of health-care complaints and concerns, by health-care workers and patients, so far this year.
Tammy O’Brien, who has a brain tumour, said she learned she needed a specific radiosurgery that is not available in Saskatchewan last June. After booking the procedure in Edmonton, she was informed by her surgeon’s office that her travel and accommodation costs would not be covered.
The Ministry of Health reportedly told O’Brien the same thing and she was supplied with a list of charities she could access to find assistance in covering her costs. O’Brien, who is on a fixed income due to disability, called the situation “humiliating.”
Saskatchewan Medical Association president, Dr. Pamela Arnold, said the issue of physician shortages has not come across her desk or been brought specifically to her attention by doctors.
Saskatoon physician, Dr. Fei Ge, said the city and province, generally, is still lacking practitioners in some specialty areas, leaving patients with long waits or requiring them to leave the province to seek care elsewhere.
Ge has seen a “handful” of those cases during her year and a half of practising in the province.
Saskatchewan has long wait times for allergists at present, sometimes longer than a year. Ge said there are only a handful of those doctors in the province, not enough to keep up with the demand.
Until recently, dermatologists were among those with lengthy wait lists, though Ge said the wait for that specialty has improved.
Ge said patients are usually understanding and willing to wait.
“I think it’s important to … set those realistic expectations and say, the wait times for this are long. You can expect it to take a year or more, but obviously, I’m on top of it,” Ge explained. “(Patients) do definitely appreciate that.”
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