The Saskatchewan government announced Thursday that sixteen new physicians began practicing in the rural areas of the province after completing the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment program in June. Now, there are 283 family physicians who were assessed through SIPPA and internationally-trained working in the province. Seventy-seven per cent of them have begun to practice in rural communities.

Official Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat says that ‘It is disappointing to see the Sask. Party doing victory laps after hiring only 16 doctors, when there are still over 2,000 unfilled healthcare positions on the government’s own websites, nearly 300 of which are for doctors.’

She says, ‘If the government actually listened to people in healthcare and did the work, instead of tooting their own horn all the time, we wouldn’t have the worst hospital wait times in Canada.’

Data released in July by The Canadian Institute for Health Information shows median wait times for knee replacements were 467 days in Saskatchewan last year, and median wait times for hip replacements were 309 days.