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Saskatchewan, the birthplace of medicare, wants to overhaul its health-care system and officials won't rule out privatizing some elements.

Health Minister Don McMorris announced details Wednesday of a $1.5-million review that will look at the system from a patient's perspective and will also examine how services are administered.

“They're going to look at the health-care system as a whole,” Mr. McMorris said.

“We already have private delivery within the health-care system that is working. Should it be expanded? I don't know. I'm not going to prejudge that, but they're going to look at how we can deliver health care to our citizens as best as possible.”

Tony Dagnone, the former head of Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital, has been appointed to head up the “Patient First” review.

Mr. Dagnone will work with independent firm KPMG on the consultations, analyzing results and drafting recommendations for the patient experience review. He will work with Deloitte Inc. on the administrative review.

Plans are for the report to be presented to the minister by mid-2009.

“This is what I would call a one-of-a-kind type of review. It is going to be a very, very significant task,” Mr. Dagnone said.

However, he insisted privatization was not the starting point for the review.

“Obviously a lot of suggestions will be made and we'll take each one of those suggestions. My test here is that ... we're going to take a hard look at anything that will improve the health-care system.”

Mr. McMorris said all areas of health care could come under the microscope, but also said the review is not about privatization.

“This is not a review to look at how we can inject private delivery into the health-care system,” he said.

“There already is that private-delivery element within a publicly funded, publicly administered system and that's what we're going to maintain ... but within that system we want to see how to best deliver, most efficiently, the services that benefit patients.”

The right-leaning Saskatchewan Party began calling for an audit of the province's health-care system long before taking office in November, 2007.

In the past, the party also suggested creating a single health-care agency for Saskatchewan – something Alberta did in May when the province dissolved nine existing regional health boards and created a new super board as part of its streamlining measures.

Mr. McMorris said Wednesday there are currently no plans for Saskatchewan to follow suit, but acknowledged that he wouldn't tell the review team that the issue is “off limits.”

Making changes to health care can be contentious in Saskatchewan, where former premier Tommy Douglas created universal medical care.

The Opposition New Democrats have repeatedly argued that the Saskatchewan Party government wants to weaken the public system and shift toward private, for-profit health care.