The Official Opposition wants the government to make public the number of surgeries that have been cancelled during the pandemic, and what the plan is to clear the backlog.

NDP Leader Ryan Meili says the Sask. Party needs to be doing everything it can to reduce capacity pressures on the health care system. He gives the example of the federal government offering non-ICU support, which hasn’t been accepted at this point.

Meili says staff reallocations due to lack of capacity from the fourth wave of COVID-19 have resulted in thousands of cancelled cancer surgeries and treatments, organ transplants, children’s surgeries and pediatric therapies.

He adds that since restrictions were removed in the province on July 11th, the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative website has not been updated with the numbers from July through October.