SASKATOON — The Saskatchewan-NDP continued its offensive against the ruling Saskatchewan Party on Friday, Sept. 13, hitting the Scott Moe-led government for failing to address problems in the province’s once-thriving healthcare system.
Armed with posterboards boldly displaying the data released through the opposition party's freedom of information request, NDP Health Critics Jared Clarke and Vicki Mowat took turns highlighting Moe and the Saskatchewan Party's shortcomings.
Clarke, the Rural and Remote Health Critic from Regina Walsh Acres, said the data reveals the depth of Moe and Saskatchewan Party’s failure to deliver the healthcare that the people of Saskatchewan deserve.
“The data covers healthcare service disruptions for 48 hospitals and health centres across Saskatchewan, basically every centre outside Regina and Saskatoon. The Sask. Party does not want the public to know just how badly they have broken the healthcare system,” Clarke said.
“We are seeing deficits in facilities across the province. Vicky and I travelled to La Ronge, where we spent three days with some healthcare professionals and community organizations. La Ronge has been asking for an upgrade to their emergency room services. Their ER department, in terms of structure on how ambulances can arrive,” said Clarke.
“This project was supposed to happen before the pandemic, and it got shelved during the pandemic. The hospital is still waiting to hear whether the project upgrade is moving forward. They have not heard anything, so it looks like it is not moving forward. The community desperately needs this; it is just one example of a rural and remote Saskatchewan facility that is not being kept up to par to provide that care.”
He said that with all the closures, some patients, like an elderly couple he met in Milestone, are forced to move to another area of the province so that their medical needs are attended to. Mowat added that the pressure is felt and seen in hospitals in urban areas like Saskatoon.
“We know that ERs in big urban centres, in Saskatoon and Regina, are full to the max. We have people in hallway beds for days. We have healthcare workers doing their best, but insufficient spaces exist to treat those patients. There is an increased reliance on our ERs in bigger centres due to the rural closures,” said Mowat.
The critics said data includes widespread blackouts in healthcare communities like Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, and Yorkton; the more alarming is that the 4,299 days of the reported blackouts involved emergency and acute care services.
Mowat, the opposition’s Health Critic representing Saskatoon Fairview, added that healthcare blackouts and suffering people who fail to get the service they deserve are Moe's and the Sask. Party's responsibility.
“Saskatchewan is the birthplace of public healthcare, but this government has driven the system into crisis. The proof is right here in the data we’re releasing today,” said Mowat, the NDP’s deputy leader.
“We also have among the longest wait times for surgeries in the country, and nearly 200,000 people in our province don’t have regular access to a doctor. People are being denied the public healthcare they deserve across the province, which is unacceptable.”
Based on the data the NDP collected, five hospitals in Saskatchewan remain closed for 3,684 days, with the Herbert & District Integrated Healthcare Facility in the town of Herbert leading at 971 days, the Northwest Health Facility in Meadow Lake (936), Lanigan Hospital (923), St. Peter’s Hospital in Melville (468), and Broadview Hospital in the southeastern town of Broadview for more than a year at 386 days.
