MEADOW LAKE — The opposition New Democrats were in Meadow Lake Thursday to raise the issue of how disruptions in the health care system are impacting those giving birth.
Official Opposition Status of Women Critic Jennifer Bowes and Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat raised the issue of disruptions to obstetric and anesthetic services in communities such as Yorkton, Swift Current, Estevan and Meadow Lake, where they said expectant mothers were being turned away and forced to go to other hospitals far away.
“We’ve seen chronic staffing shortages and service disruption across Saskatchewan under the Sask. Party government,” said Bowes.
“Disruptions to obstetrical care mean that many Saskatchewan women in the north and the surrounding Indigenous communities are going without the care that they need and deserve. Unfortunately, these disruptions can have very serious consequences.”
The two MLAs spoke to reporters outside Meadow Lake Hospital where they were joined by Kendal Carlburg. Carlburg was going into labour but was turned away from the Meadow Lake Hospital due to weekend staffing shortages in March 2021.
She was told she had to travel to the nearest hospital in Lloydminster to deliver her baby.
But she didn’t made it there in time. Just 45 minutes into the drive, they had to call 911 and she gave birth, with her partner and a paramedic delivering her baby in an ambulance on the side of the road near Paradise Hill.
“My thoughts in my head were terrifying,” Carlburg said of the experience. She previously gave birth by a C-section. “All I could think was my baby was going to die on the side of the highway.”
Fortunately, her daughter was born healthy, with no complications.
The NDP also pointed to shortages of specialists in rural and northern Saskatchewan. Mowat noted that Saskatchewan has a “terrible record for retaining OBs and anesthesiologists — 20 per cent and 50 per cent respectively. But we have a government that lacks any curiosity to get to the bottom of why that is.”
Mowat once again called out the Sask. Party government for a lack of action on the staff shortage issue.
“What we are hearing from the Sask. Party government is crickets. Not a word in months from the health minister of this province, nothing from your MLA,” said Mowat.
Recent indications from the provincial government have been that they may announce as soon as next week their strategy and funding to address the recruiting of health care workers to the province.
