Regina Breast Health Centre staffed by ‘reorganization,’ says union

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The government says the new Breast Health Centre in Regina is prepared to open next week and expand cancer-treatment capacity, despite concerns around staffing from the Opposition NDP.

“We’ve fully staffed up. We’re ready to go,” Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said during a press conference held at the new facility on Monday.

The centre will open on April 23, nearly a year after it was announced as a way to reduce wait times for in-province diagnostics plagued by capacity issues. It was initially expected to open sometime in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

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Services include surgical, imaging and consultation care in one central location. The government says the centre will double the capacity currently offered at the Breast Assessment Centre inside Regina’s Pasqua Hospital by taking 1,600 patient referrals each year.

“Having something that’s outside of a hospital setting, under one roof, to streamline that patient experience is so important,” Cockrill said.

Moving staff around

As Cockrill announced the centre’s impending opening, the Saskatchewan NDP questioned whether the province is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Messages between a staff member at Pasqua Hospital and the Saskatchewan Health Authority showed health-care workers from the hospital’s assessment centre were being reallocated to the new centre, the Opposition revealed Monday.

Cockrill confirmed that four workers have been moved from the existing breast assessment centre, but that the province doesn’t expect any disruption in services at Pasqua.

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Opposition health critic Meara Conway and women’s critic Brittany Senger also called into question whether the 13 other staff brought on to the new centre were really new hires or health-care employees being shuffled from other clinics.

“The government, frankly, has poached these workers and they’re just moving them from one building to another,” said Senger at a news conference Monday afternoon.

Cockrill described the positions as “new staff” but could not specify “exactly where those staff came from.”

No increase to ‘overall staff compliment’: union

A statement from CUPE Local 5430, which represents health care workers including radiologists and medical technologists, said one employee was hired as a new posting but other employees will be working at the centre within existing multi-site contracts as part of a “reorganization” of staff that will phase out work at Pasqua’s centre.

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“There won’t be an increase in the overall staff compliment to provide these services,” said the union’s statement.

Conway and Senger said this raises questions about the Saskatchewan Party’s promise the new centre will attract new health-care workers into the province or increase capacity for patients.

“We’re seeing ribbon cuttings, we’re seeing new buildings, but we are not actually seeing this government build out new capacity in our health-care system,” said Conway.

Cockrill also confirmed the province will be keeping its contract with Calgary-based clinic Clearpoint Health Network to deliver mammograms to Saskatchewan patients even after the new centre opens. It will reevaluate “closer to when that expires” in March 2026.

“It’s important to have these services close to home, but access is also really important,” he said. “That’s another opportunity for access and I think we owe it to the women of the province to have all options available.”

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To date, 515 women have travelled to Alberta to receive imaging services under that contract, said Cockrill.

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— With files from The Canadian Press

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