The Saskatchewan government isn’t making any promises after being asked to help pay for the Flin Flon General Hospital’s new emergency department.
A spokesperson confirms the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health received a funding request from the Manitoba government last week.
“The ministry generally doesn’t comment on correspondence it receives from third parties,” the spokesperson told The Reminder, adding that at this point it is “impossible to say definitively when a decision about this request will be made.”
The spokesperson said requests to help fund health care projects in other provinces – in this case Manitoba – “would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis” as they are not covered by existing policy.
Such decisions would usually be made as part of the province’s budget planning process, the spokesperson said.
Capital funding for the Flin Flon ER was briefly discussed between the Saskatchewan and Manitoba deputy health ministers a few weeks ago during a conversation on another matter, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Saskatchewan pays for in-hospital services provided to patients with Saskatchewan Health coverage when they are in Manitoba or any other province.
Health officials hope construction on Flin Flon’s new ER can begin in mid-2015. Based on initial estimates, the project will cost $22 million.
Under Manitoba rules, regional fundraising must generate up to $2.2 million of that amount in less than a year. If $2.2 million cannot be raised by the time construction starts, the fundraising requirement increases to $4.4 million over 10 years.
Fundraising is off to a strong start. As of late September, a new charitable foundation had brought in nearly $400,000 for the project.
According to the Northern Health Region, 40.2 per cent of patients accessing the Flin Flon ER are from Saskatchewan.
Funding
The issue of health care funding from Saskatchewan surfaced during the NDP’s 2011 nomination contest in the Flin Flon Constituency.
Clarence Pettersen, who ultimately won the nomination and became MLA, said the now-defunct NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority (NRHA) needed “additional resources” that take into account Saskatchewan patients.
Other political candidates had made similar statements over the years, painting the issue as yet another case of Flin Flon losing out.
But the Manitoba government has defended its funding model when it comes to factoring in Saskatchewan patients.
“The Manitoba government does take into account the Saskatchewan residents that obtain services at Flin Flon hospital when funding health care in [the] NRHA,” Karen Herd, then chief financial officer of Manitoba Health, told The Reminder in 2011.
Under a decades-old agreement between Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the former province was paying the latter about $4 million a year. That reimbursed Manitoba for the cost of caring for some 8,000 northeastern Saskatchewan residents who tend to rely on Flin Flon for hospital care.
“Saskatchewan pays Manitoba a proportionate share of the costs of the Flin Flon Hospital,” said Herd. “This proportion is based on the percentage of Saskatchewan residents who use the hospital facility, compared to total usage of the Flin Flon hospital. Other provinces that share ‘border’ hospitals have arrangements like this as well.”
All Canadian provinces have health-care reimbursement agreements. As already noted, if a Saskatchewan resident visits a hospital in any other province, that province will bill Saskatchewan for the cost.
What makes the Flin Flon hospital agreement unique, a Saskatchewan government spokesperson said in 2011, is that Saskatchewan also pays a portion of overhead costs.
This reflects the sheer volume of Saskatchewan residents receiving cross-border treatment at the same facility, the spokesperson added.
