The Saskatchewan government will expand the use of nurse practitioners, something the Opposition NDP welcomes but wants more details.Premier Scott Moe and Health Minister Everett Hindley joined MLA Terry Jenson at a medical clinic in Warman to announce the initiative. Another clinic with a nurse practitioner (NP) is slated to open in Martensville next month.The Ministry of Health is piloting a new model for independently operated, publicly-funded nurse practitioner (NP) clinics. In all, 25 new nurse practitioner positions will be created over the next year under the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) in its clinics and as part of primary health care teams.The ministry also wants to expand the areas that NPs serve in beyond primary health care as they serve in rural, regional and northern communities.In a media scrum with reporters, Hindley said more details would be outlined in the budget and the consultations that prompted the initiative will continue in its implementation.“The consultation piece is really important. We want to make sure we get this right,” Hindley said.“We want to ensure that we're working very closely with our ministry officials and with the SHA but also with the Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners to identify where is it that we have, perhaps, nurse practitioners who are living in communities but aren't working, and is there an opportunity to incorporate them.”NPs have more training than registered nurses and can perform some duties normally reserved for physicians, such as prescribing treatments and diagnosing patients. Opposition health critic Vicki Mowat said the need for NPs was acute.“Across this province, there's 200,000 people that don't have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner," the NDP MLA told reporters. "We have been an ardent supporters of figuring out ways to include nurse practitioners into the healthcare system.”“It's something that provides some excitement for nurse practitioners. And I think people in our communities will also be excited about the prospect of having new clinics open.”Mowat said 44 NPs in Saskatchewan weren’t functioning in that capacity, though some were working as registered nurses. She found the Sask Party government's NP announcement was “very short on details” and begged for answers.“There are a whole bunch of questions around how these facilities will operate, what the rate of pay is going to look like. Is it going to be attractive enough to track nurse practitioners? Is it exclusively contract based? Is there going to be a fee-for-service model?” she asked.“Is the nurse practitioner going to be the head of the clinic or are they going to bring in an SHA manager? To what extent are they going to have a healthcare team available or other supports? Which areas are they going to request? How do you get a nurse practitioner in your community?”The province also announced March 13 that 14 new physicians were practicing in rural communities, having completed the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program in December.Over the past 12 years, 539 physicians from around the world have successfully completed the SIPPA program. Currently, 304 are practicing in the province, 77% of whom have established practices in rural or regional communities. Plans are underway to increase SIPPA training seats that SIPPA offers.Even so, Mowat suggested the health system was failing under Moe. She pointed to data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) to show the province is losing more doctors to other provinces than it’s recruiting.According to CIHI, there were 2,234 rural or remote registered nurses in 2018 when Scott Moe took office. The most recent available data shows that there are only 1,760. Since 2018, the numbers of registered psychiatric nurses have dropped from 755 to 679.To fill this void, the use of travel nurses has mushroomed. According to Minister Hindley, 157 travel nurses were operating in rural/northern communities as of last April and 68 between Regina and Saskatoon, logging 29,000 travel hours.A request to Hindley by Mowat for updated stats and costs have not yet received a response, but new figures from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) show 50,000 hours were logged by travel nurses this January.Saskatchewan is on track to spend more than $70 million on travel nurses this year alone, according to SUN. Reports from the SHA show the province spent $23.5 million on travel nurses last year, $9.8 million in 2021-22, and $1.4 million in 2020-21.
The Saskatchewan government will expand the use of nurse practitioners, something the Opposition NDP welcomes but wants more details.Premier Scott Moe and Health Minister Everett Hindley joined MLA Terry Jenson at a medical clinic in Warman to announce the initiative. Another clinic with a nurse practitioner (NP) is slated to open in Martensville next month.The Ministry of Health is piloting a new model for independently operated, publicly-funded nurse practitioner (NP) clinics. In all, 25 new nurse practitioner positions will be created over the next year under the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) in its clinics and as part of primary health care teams.The ministry also wants to expand the areas that NPs serve in beyond primary health care as they serve in rural, regional and northern communities.In a media scrum with reporters, Hindley said more details would be outlined in the budget and the consultations that prompted the initiative will continue in its implementation.“The consultation piece is really important. We want to make sure we get this right,” Hindley said.“We want to ensure that we're working very closely with our ministry officials and with the SHA but also with the Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners to identify where is it that we have, perhaps, nurse practitioners who are living in communities but aren't working, and is there an opportunity to incorporate them.”NPs have more training than registered nurses and can perform some duties normally reserved for physicians, such as prescribing treatments and diagnosing patients. Opposition health critic Vicki Mowat said the need for NPs was acute.“Across this province, there's 200,000 people that don't have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner," the NDP MLA told reporters. "We have been an ardent supporters of figuring out ways to include nurse practitioners into the healthcare system.”“It's something that provides some excitement for nurse practitioners. And I think people in our communities will also be excited about the prospect of having new clinics open.”Mowat said 44 NPs in Saskatchewan weren’t functioning in that capacity, though some were working as registered nurses. She found the Sask Party government's NP announcement was “very short on details” and begged for answers.“There are a whole bunch of questions around how these facilities will operate, what the rate of pay is going to look like. Is it going to be attractive enough to track nurse practitioners? Is it exclusively contract based? Is there going to be a fee-for-service model?” she asked.“Is the nurse practitioner going to be the head of the clinic or are they going to bring in an SHA manager? To what extent are they going to have a healthcare team available or other supports? Which areas are they going to request? How do you get a nurse practitioner in your community?”The province also announced March 13 that 14 new physicians were practicing in rural communities, having completed the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program in December.Over the past 12 years, 539 physicians from around the world have successfully completed the SIPPA program. Currently, 304 are practicing in the province, 77% of whom have established practices in rural or regional communities. Plans are underway to increase SIPPA training seats that SIPPA offers.Even so, Mowat suggested the health system was failing under Moe. She pointed to data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) to show the province is losing more doctors to other provinces than it’s recruiting.According to CIHI, there were 2,234 rural or remote registered nurses in 2018 when Scott Moe took office. The most recent available data shows that there are only 1,760. Since 2018, the numbers of registered psychiatric nurses have dropped from 755 to 679.To fill this void, the use of travel nurses has mushroomed. According to Minister Hindley, 157 travel nurses were operating in rural/northern communities as of last April and 68 between Regina and Saskatoon, logging 29,000 travel hours.A request to Hindley by Mowat for updated stats and costs have not yet received a response, but new figures from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) show 50,000 hours were logged by travel nurses this January.Saskatchewan is on track to spend more than $70 million on travel nurses this year alone, according to SUN. Reports from the SHA show the province spent $23.5 million on travel nurses last year, $9.8 million in 2021-22, and $1.4 million in 2020-21.
