NDP promises to end Lean program

New Democratic Party Leader Cam Broten is promising that if elected, his party willend the controversial Lean program.

The Lean quality improvement program is modelled on Toyota's production systemand focuses on rooting out waste. It was implemented by the province's Ministry of Healthin 2008and was government-wide by 2010.

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Since then, the program has come under fire, most notably by the NDP, as a waste of taxpayersmoney.

"This election is all about priorities," Broten saidin a news release.

"During almost a decade of record resource wealth, instead of investing in mental health care coverage for children and youth or delivering on shorter emergency room wait times, the Sask. Party chose to spend millions and millions on their consultants and consultants' consultants."

Both the NDP and the Saskatchewan Party have very different ideas of how effective Lean has been.

Recently, the provincial government estimated the program had saved health regions $130 million. However, a study by the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan found that for every dollar saved by the program, $1,511 was spent.

The NDP argues the Lean program has been very unpopular with health region staff and hasn't shown much evidence that care has improved.

Last month, Health Minister Dustin Duncan maintained Lean was worthwhile. Meanwhile, the province's Health Quality Council is working with a U of S researcher to study the issue.

The provincial election is April 4.