NORTH BATTLEFORD — The Saskatchewan NDP was in the Battlefords on June 26 to discuss the findings from its interim report from the Your Care, Your Say health-care consultation.
"This was, I believe, the largest health-care consultation that's occurred in Saskatchewan in a generation," Associate Health Critic for the NDP Keith Jorgenson said. "We went everywhere through the province and talked to over a thousand healthcare workers, patients, stakeholders in the health-care system, and tried to sort of start first by diagnosing what is wrong with the health-care system."
He said what the NDP heard from people everywhere is that the health-care system in the province is "badly broken."
"It's not providing the care that people need where and when they need it," Jorgenson said. "It's also burning out health-care workers and causing them to lose faith in the system and leave the health-care profession. Part of the interim report is also kind of like bundles of broad solutions to how to fix the problems that we've identified."
He said there needs to be a solution not just to recruit and train more health-care workers, but to come up with a strategy to retain those health-care workers so they don't burn out and leave the health-care system. There also needs to be a way that people can have access to the health-care information about the health-care system that they need.
"So, is my hospital open? Is it closed? What health-care services are available? But also what doctors are accepting new patients so that people don't have to phone a hundred doctors' offices to try to find a family doctor," Jorgenson said. "And then also returning local control and voices into the health-care system."
"There are issues with retention of health-care workers here in the Battlefords that affect the ability to deliver quality health care for the people of the Battlefords," he added. "Also the Battlefords has a large catchment area of communities that have been affected by hospital disruptions, whether we're going towards Lloydminster and Maidstone or up to Turtleford, where hospitals like Turtleford is on disruption, and then people are coming to the Battlefords for services. I think all of these things affect the Battlefords, along with access to information."
Saskatchewan Health Minister and Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill had this to say in response to the NDP's concerns.
"The NDP health-care plan is heavy on vibes and light on action," he said in a statement. "After promising for over a year that they would bring forward their ideas on healthcare, the NDP released a healthcare plan this week with no real targets and no real solutions. This is yet another example of why we cannot take the NDP seriously.
"Patients in Saskatchewan deserve clear action items that improve access to primary care and shorter waits for necessary diagnostics and surgeries," Cockrill added. "Our government’s Patients First Health Care Plan has 50 clear action items that directly improve health care for patients and communities. We have already made progress on many of the action items, and we won’t stop working to provide the right care at the right time, as close to home as possible, for every Saskatchewan resident."
