YORKTON — Saskatchewan NDP MLA Jared Clarke says the party's newly released interim health-care consultation report is focused on restoring access to primary care and addressing staffing challenges across the province.
In an interview with SaskToday, Clarke said the report follows 10 months of consultations that included more than 1,000 conversations, surveys, meetings with patients, health-care providers, community leaders, Indigenous leaders and other stakeholders.
"I'm really excited about our ‘Your Care, Your Say’ interim report that we released last Wednesday," Clarke said. "We've been working at this for 10 months."
According to Clarke, the report identifies areas where the NDP believes health care is failing under the current Saskatchewan Party government and outlines five guiding principles that would shape an NDP government's approach.
One of the key priorities is improving access to primary care.
"We know if you look at the statistics that Saskatchewan ranks last in access to family doctors across Canada right now," Clarke said. "It is worse here than in other places."
Clarke said the NDP wants to move toward a system where residents are guaranteed access to primary care based on where they live.
"When you move into a community, you're guaranteed access to primary care based on your postal code, just like when you move into a community, your kid is guaranteed a spot at a local school," he said.
The model would rely on team-based care involving family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and other health-care professionals.
Clarke said the lack of access to primary care contributes to pressures elsewhere in the system.
"What happens is that compounds that lack of ability to have preventative medicine, to be able to manage chronic disease, to get your kid in to see them when they're sick, not three weeks from now," he said. "Those things then all show up in the emergency room."
He said details on how the proposal would be implemented will be released in the months leading up to the next provincial election.
The consultation process also highlighted concerns around transparency in the health-care system, Clarke said.
As the NDP's Rural and Remote Health critic, Clarke said he has been calling for a live map showing when emergency departments in rural hospitals are open or closed.
"You could actually look at it like a power outage map and if at the end of an emergency you could look at the app, you could see, 'Oh wait, this hospital is not open right now. We shouldn't head there,'" he said.
He also pointed to the removal of a Saskatchewan Health Authority webpage that previously listed physicians accepting new patients.
He said the result is that residents searching for a family doctor are repeatedly calling medical clinics, creating additional work for clinic staff. A physician registry is one change addressed in the interim report, he said.
Clarke also said virtual care should play a larger role in Saskatchewan's health system, but he said it must be publicly delivered.
"Our plan is that health care is delivered publicly so that there are no user fees," he said. "The amount of money in your bank shouldn't determine whether or not you get health care in this province."
Clarke pointed to work being done through Saskatchewan's Virtual Health Hub, including technology that allows specialists in Saskatoon to provide services remotely in northern communities.
He described a demonstration in which an ultrasound technician in Saskatoon remotely operated equipment being used by a patient in Stony Rapids.
"We think that there very much is a role for virtual care," he said.
Clarke added that virtual care could help address challenges in smaller communities that do not require full-time specialists on site.
The Yorkton Regional Health Centre was also discussed during the interview.
Clarke said the NDP has committed to building a new hospital in Yorkton and chose Yorkton as the first stop in its ‘Your Care, Your Say’ consultation tour.
"The people of Yorkton deserve better than what they're getting," he said.
Clarke referenced concerns raised by residents about infrastructure issues at the hospital, including reports of a lack of hot water in maternity services.
Staff retention was another major theme identified through consultations, Clarke said.
He said many health-care workers have expressed frustration with working conditions and burnout.
"We heard loud and clear from people that retention is the best recruiting strategy," Clarke said.
He said the government has focused on recruiting new health-care professionals while failing to retain existing staff.
"We want to make sure that our medium and long-term health-care professionals like nurses are valuable individuals in the health-care system," he said.
Clarke said retention efforts should include addressing workplace culture and ensuring health-care workers have a meaningful role in developing solutions.
He also pointed to local initiatives as examples of successful recruitment and training models, including a partnership involving the Yorkton Regional Health Centre Foundation, Suncrest College and Red River College Polytechnic to train echocardiography technologists in Yorkton.
"What we found in our consultation is that there are really good things happening in small pockets," he said. "Why aren't we implementing these kinds of ideas across the province?"
Women's health was another area raised during the interview.
Clarke said Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck created a shadow minister for women's health position last year, currently held by MLA Jacqueline Roy.
He said women's health concerns were part of the consultation process and are reflected in the report's guiding principles.
"Access to care is critical," Clarke said. "That specifically is mentioned, ensuring that women's health is addressed."
He pointed to Manitoba's menopause clinic as an example of an initiative Saskatchewan could consider, and said the NDP has also advocated for an endometriosis strategy.
"We recognize that women need better health care across the board," Clarke said.
The NDP says additional health-care policy proposals based on the consultation findings will be released ahead of the next provincial election.
