Mandryk: Bad planning behind Saskatchewan breast cancer screening woes

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This is a provincial government that built a children’s hospital simply because we didn’t have one.

In the case of the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Party government demonstrated a willingness to deliver for a heath-care system with insatiable needs and wants.

But isn’t breast cancer diagnosis also among the priority needs and wants? Didn’t the Sask. Party list breast cancer diagnosis as one of its priorities during last year’s general election?

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Yet stories of failed results have become annoyingly repetitious. Consider the latest ones:

In a story by CBC Saskatoon’s Aishwarya Dudha, 72-year-old Regina woman Louise Fedirko explained she has been waiting for a breast biopsy after two mammograms and an ultrasound found a mass.

“I might not have breast cancer. I don’t know. But the torture of going for months not knowing, it’s hard to describe,” Fedirko told the CBC. “I wake up in the middle of the night completely soaking wet, shaking, and wondering. I just don’t know.”

It is similar to story to Nadine Baker’s. In January 2024, the Regina woman told reporters about having to wait nearly a year before receiving a diagnostic mammogram for her negative test results.

“It’s a constant worry,” Baker said during a news conference where the NDP raised these specific health concerns. “I saw my mom go through breast cancer, so I know what the picture looks like. And the sooner you get diagnosed, the better the outcome.

“The health-care system right now, it’s broken so badly, How many are going to find out too late? Am I going to find out too late?”

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One gets the fear and anger from women who have been told by a Sask. Party government the solution is to send them out-of-province to a private Calgary clinic for testing. The Opposition NDP says that comes with a tenfold cost.

Less easy to understand is why the Sask. Party has failed to make headway.

While some eagerly accept the narrative women’s health is just not a priority for a male-dominated caucus, that’s surely not the impression one got from Premier Scott Moe’s campaign announcement last fall with cancer survivors and unsuccessful Sask. Party candidates Sarah Wright and former minister Laura Ross.

Both the NDP Opposition and health-care unions have framed it as a political problem, a right-wing government preferring private clinics over public health care delivery.

In another recent story by Jeremy Simes of The Canadian Press, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local president Bashir Jalloh noted overworked diagnostic technicians have been frustrated by not being able to provide more timely care a year after the Sask. Party vowed to do better.

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Although the Sask. Party recently extended the contract with those Calgary clinics for another year, it should be noted the government still views this costly solution ($1,500 per patient, just to cover travel) as a temporary one. Any bias the Sask. Party has towards private solutions, at best, speaks to only part of a problem that’s become a crisis.

There’s a breast cancer screening crisis in Saskatchewan because government didn’t build the capacity in the public system to address the looming challenge.

A backlog created by the pandemic, coupled with a massive shortage in breast radiologists and lowering the age limit for mammograms to 40 from 50, surely helped create this perfect storm.

But the bigger problem was this government’s selective view.

While focused on physical monuments like the Children’s Hospital or other health care construction, the government was paying less attention to basics like breast cancer screening and overcrowded emergency wards.

There will likely be more money for breast cancer screening in the March 19 budget, but it will quickly become evident that it won’t be enough to fix what’s become a massive issue.

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We needed to start building that capacity years ago. Unfortunately, the government’s focus was elsewhere.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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