REGINA — The opposition New Democrats have released their long-awaited interim report from their Your Care, Your Say consultations across the province.
Leader Carla Beck, health critic Meara Conway and rural and remote health critic Jared Clarke released the report at the legislature. The interim report is based on their Your Care, Your Say consultations over the past several months, with the report focused on themes raised from the feedback they received.
Those include:
- Primary Care is Not Primary: A System Without a Front Door;
- Centralization Without Results: The Loss of Accountability and Local Decision-Making Under the SHA;
- In The Dark & No Seat at the Table: Exclusion, Lack of Transparency, Communication Breakdown;
- Burnt Out and Shut Out: Healthcare Provider Retention Must Be The Focus
- Pressure and Declining Access: A System Responding to Crises Instead of Preventing Them;
- Waste, Mismanagement, and the Rise of For-Profit Care.
The report also outlines five principles to rebuild health care, which the NDP says will guide the solutions they will roll out over the coming months. Those are to build out primary care as the foundation of health care; put patients and communities back at the centre; support and retain health-care workers; make health care open, transparent and accountable; and plan for the future and strengthen public care.
“So these are the guiding principles that are going to guide the very important work ahead,” said Beck.
“And to be clear, this report isn't the end of the conversation. In fact, it is just the beginning. Together with the people of this province, we'll come together and rebuild healthcare here in Saskatchewan for the future.”
“What people told us was clear and it was consistent,” Conway said. “They want a healthcare system that works. They want a government that listens.”
Conway added that while the government keeps spending more on health care, “we hear and we see and we experience that healthcare is only getting worse.
“Saskatchewan people told us that they don't want more excuses. They don't want an old plan with a new cover. They don't want more photo ops, more politicians standing at microphones telling them everything is fine, or more ribbon cuttings at healthcare facilities that a government has no plan to fill with staff. They want action. And that's exactly what our team intends to deliver.”
Just before the news conference, a statement was issued on behalf of Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill slamming the NDP interim report.
“The document released by the NDP today can hardly be called a health care plan,” the statement read. “It does not actually include anything resembling a plan. It is incredibly vague, relying on statements like ‘make every dollar count,’ with no clear actions, original innovation, or timelines.”
The statement pointed to the government’s Patients First Health Care Plan and its 50 key actions, including removing more than 240 clinical policies to allow nurses to practise to their full scope, increasing undergraduate medical seats by 20, increasing physician residency seats by 10, expanding access to virtual care, adding six more urgent care centres throughout the province, continuing to recruit, train and increase doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and other health-care professionals, and working to a target of 90 per cent of patients receiving diagnostic scans within 60 days by the end of 2028.
“Promising ‘big, bold changes’ then delivering a plan this light on details is exactly why nobody takes the NDP seriously.”
When asked about the claim that their plan was light on details, the NDP hit back by pointing to the length of time the Saskatchewan Party has spent in power.
“Frankly, they've had 20 years," said Beck.
"They've had 20 years to fix this system and I think people in this province understand that healthcare today in Saskatchewan is much worse off after 20 years of the Sask Party. We're focused on the road forward. We're focused on what we've heard — the thousands of conversations and meetings that we've had with healthcare providers with communities across this province, and I know that they will see their voices not only about the concerns, but their hopes and their plans for the future in this report, and that's what really matters.”
Now that the interim report has been released, the New Democrats plan to take it on the road as they prepare to release further proposals on health care in the coming months, with further consultations planned.
One of those is set to happen right away. On Thursday, the NDP were scheduled to hold their third Your Care, Your Say town hall event, happening at 6 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Library.
