The Provincial Opposition has released the first phase of their proposed plan for healthcare in the province two years ahead of election season.

The plan comes after consultations with people in the healthcare system. Phase one is based on four pillars – Healthcare Home, Healthcare Hub, Bridge and Backbone.

Pillar one, the Healthcare Home, starts by making sure all Saskatchewan residents have access to a primary care team based on where they live. The team would be made up of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who know the patient and work to provide ongoing care.

The NDP says under this pillar they would make sure that if a primary provider is no longer able to care for a person, the system would connect them with another healthcare provider.

The Healthcare Hub pillar works to connect local primary care teams to shared services and additional capacity by introducing hubs. The shared services teams will be able to access include home care, mental health and addictions care, allied health professionals, diagnostics, social work, system navigation, specialists, and community programs that play a role in people’s health.

The Bridge pillar puts a focuses on expanding services to make sure distance, travel and mobility aren’t an issue for receiving care. Services include he 811 Healthline, Telehealth, relational virtual care, community paramedicine and mobile nurses. The expanded resources are done with the intention of expanding capacity, not replacing it.

The final pillar, the Backbone, is their to create a connected information system so healthcare providers and patients have access to the right information to receive timely care. The Backbone pillar is meant to prevent unnecessary duplication of diagnostics and prevent patients from needing to repeat their medical history.

Beside the four pillars, the plan is also based on a team-based care model.

Meara Conway, NDP Shadow Minister for Health says that models of team-based care can already be seen in the province, such as in community clinics.

“The proof is already here that team-based care works. The problem is that these models are available to too few people in too few communities.”

The NDP adds that phase one would begin implementation as soon as possible if they were elected.

Further details on their plan are expected to be released later on.