The Saskatchewan NDP says Yorkton and Melville are facing a growing wave of healthcare service closures that are putting lives at risk.
Jared Clark, shadow minister for rural and remote health, has been visiting communities across the province to highlight the issue. He says Saskatchewan is in a healthcare crisis, made worse under the Sask. Party government.
“In the past six years, we’ve seen maternity wards, ERs, diagnostic labs, surgical units, CT scanners and MRI machines closed or disrupted,” Clark said. “These aren’t isolated, random cases. They’re forming a troubling pattern that’s pushing essential care further out of reach for rural and remote residents.”
Clark said in the first 18 months of Premier Scott Moe’s leadership, the province experienced 86 service disruptions, totaling 808 days of lost care. In the most recent 18-month period, that number jumped to 643 disruptions lasting 3,362 days – nearly an eightfold increase.
Here in Yorkton, there were 19 disruptions totaling 107 days, affecting obstetrics, intensive care, emergency services and diagnostics. The longest outages lasted 29 and 11 days for medical and other services, respectively. Down the highway in Melville, the problem is more severe, with 64 disruptions totaling 471 days, mostly impacting emergency and diagnostic services.
Clark warned that closures force patients to travel long distances for care. “Patients in medical emergencies are diverted, mothers give birth on the side of the road because the maternity ward is closed, and care is delayed until it’s too late,” he said.
He also criticized the lack of transparency, saying families often arrive at hospitals to find services unavailable without notice. Frontline healthcare workers, he added, have been ignored, with no pay raises in three years and no formal plan to retain staff.
Clark highlighted the need for local training and community input in healthcare delivery. He pointed to Yorkton’s Hospital Foundation programs for lab and X-ray technicians as a model for “homegrown talent” and urged more opportunities for nurses and other healthcare professionals to upskill and return to serve their communities.
“The government promised a nursing task force during the election, but that hasn’t happened,” Clark said. “Reliable healthcare is not an option. It is a basic right and the foundation for strong, thriving communities across our province.”
The NDP continues to call for greater transparency, retention strategies, and training initiatives to ensure rural Saskatchewan residents have access to essential healthcare services.
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