THE BATTLEFORDS — The Saskatchewan NDP campaign is taking personal stories to the front porches of Battlefords voters.
The same day NDP Leader Carla Beck released a financial plan Oct. 4, promising $1 billion to fix health care over four years and $2 billion to build more schools, local resident Amanda Singh was invited to make her first-hand appeal at a press conference at NDP candidate for the Battlefords Tom Kroczynski’s campaign office.
Singh was determined as she testified to the effects of the Saskatchewan Party-led health care system.
“Why do we only have one doctor, or sometimes just a nurse practitioner, to manage entire emergency rooms? Why are we running units with only one RN [registered nurse] and not replacing nurses who call in sick? Why are we paying through the nose for travel nurses?”
A resident of the province for 47 years, and a former medical office assistant and surgical scheduler within the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), Singh claims a deep connection to the province-wide health care crisis.
“The emergency room is overcrowded, uncomfortable and not suitable for people in severe pain," Singh argues, adding that she has family and friends working as nurses and doctors at Battlefords Union Hospital.
Singh shared that she is currently living with ankylosing spondylitis, a condition that causes intense spinal pain and inflammation in her heart, lungs and joints — and accessing local health care never gets easier for her.
“In the early years of my disease, on average, I would wait three hours at the hospital to be seen. A few years later, the wait grew to about six hours. Now it takes up to eight hours before I receive pain relief on average,” she said. “I’ve never imagined that I would rely on health care services as much as I do now.”
The current government has not addressed the crisis, Singh argues, adding: “They seemed more focused on privatizing health care than solving the problem.”
As a central rallying cry for his candidacy, Kroczynski criticized the Sask. Party government for what he calls “thoughtless and uncaring mismanagement” of the health-care system, pointing to the exhaustion and burnout of health-care workers as direct consequences.
The facts Kroczynski cited in his speech, included services at BUH disrupted 216 days over the past five years, and the intensive care unit here was closed more than it was open between January and February last year. He attacked the Sask. Party candidate Jeremy Cockrill, who, as Kroczynski claimed, had been “silent, failing to stand up for his own constituents.”
The event was joined by Saskatchewan NDP candidate for Saskatoon Nutana Erika Ritchie, who later added that the health-care crisis is also seen in Saskatoon, where the Royal University Hospital has been350 per cent over capacity, and the hospital has run out of oxygen and stretchers.
“I’ll say that again, they ran out of oxygen,” Ritchie said. “These are the facts of the health-care system under Scott Moe and the Sask. Party, they have taken Saskatchewan from being the birthplace of medical care to the last place for health care in Canada.”
The $1 billion investment aims to enhance recruitment, training, and retention efforts, Ritchie continued, as their team aims to ensure all Saskatchewan residents have access to a family doctor in their communities.
“[Scott Moe and the Sask. Party] were a no-show at the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses conference and rally in Regina yesterday. It is time to get Saskatchewan out of last place. And on Oct. 28, the voters of the Battleforsd and Saskatchewan can do this by electing Tom Kroczynski as MLA and Carla Beck as premier.”
Singh said she told her story from different stages in the past, yet the reach doesn't seem to get very far, hoping her voice can be heard at the local NDP campaign office.
From feeling alone to feeling a part of the change, Singh is hoping to find a way out of her pain.
“I want a government that's accountable to the people of Saskatchewan. I hope for a day when our health-care system is restored to greatness, the greatness that Tommy Douglas envisioned. We must move forward and demand better for all of us.”
