'Anything helps': St. Joseph's Hospital executive director reacts to healthcare spending

St. Joseph's Hospital Executive Director Greg Hoffort is cautiously optimistic about the future of the healthcare system following the tabling of the 2022-2023 provincial budget Wednesday afternoon.

Premier Scott Moe's government announced that nearly seven billon dollars will be going towards the healthcare system following two tumultuous years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, the province hopes to address staff recruitment and retention, a lengthy surgery wait list, and care for seniors. 

"There's a few announcements that we heard in the budget today that we're optimistic about that could help us in Estevan," Hoffort said. "They mentioned 3.5 million for physician recruitment for rural Saskatchewan which certainly we're always in need of in Estevan. They talked about nursing recruitment. More money for addictions...we'll see how that affects Estevan."

"All encouraging and we'll see how that shakes out and how it affects and benefits us in Estevan." 

Hoffort said one of the main areas of focus for his team right now is retaining doctors.

"We are continually recruiting physicians, and our bigger problem in fact is retention of physicians," Hoffort said. "Anything helps in the fact that it's a local item for the government and therefore the health authority. Any attention it gets and additional dollars in the budget is certainly a step in the right direction and we'll see how that transpires in the coming months."

Meanwhile, $21.6 million is being targeted at surgery waitlists that have ballooned during the pandemic.

"Our surgeries were certainly interrupted or affected by the last two years in the pandemic. The wait times are certainly larger for the surgeries that take place in the cities, but we're all part of the health system," Hoffort said. "That was optimistic news...there certainly will be a lot of people in south east Saskatchewan that are waiting for surgeries, maybe not all in Estevan, but in the larger centres. The attention to that will be welcome news for those folks as well."

The budget also calls for a $17 million increase for services for seniors.