REGINA – Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill has pushed back against accusations that occupational therapist positions are being cut at Royal University Hospital.
Opposition Rural and Remote Health Critic Jared Clarke raised the issue in Question Period Tuesday pointing to more woes at RUH. He pointed to a leaked Saskatchewan Health Authority and claimed that occupational therapy services at the Royal University Hospital were cut due to “a temporary increase in occupational therapist vacancies.”
In response, Cockrill said there has been no reductions in occupational therapist positions and that SHA is dealing with several vacancies in that category at the moment at RUH.
“The way it has been illustrated is a little bit unfortunate by the opposition,” Cockrill said to reporters afterwards.
“I mean, no positions have been cut. We have vacancies at RUH in the occupational therapy category, and again SHA is trying to manage those vacancies as best as possible. Obviously, when you have vacancies that puts pressure on our healthcare team right and I can certainly empathize with those folks they’re trying to make sure that patients are looked after you don’t like any healthcare worker in the province, I know that they’re putting patients first… I know with our healthcare teams at Royal University Hospital right now they’re reviewing the patients that they have, obviously in the facility, determining who needs those services the most, and again managing the staff that we have in order to make sure those patients get care.”
Cockrill said it was a priority of his government and the SHA to fill the occupational therapy positions as soon as they can. He noted that part of the issue has been the fact that occupational therapists have traditionally not been trained in the province. Cockrill said this indicates the need to take a look at which professions they do not train in house in the province and get those individuals trained, saying up to now they have made return of service agreements for training seats at educational institutions out of province.
“Once we get that program at the University of Saskatchewan up and running next September, we will be training both occupational therapists but speech language pathologists as well, and again we know that the closer we can train professionals close to home… the better chance we have to recruit them and retain them right here in the province.”
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Clarke characterized Cockrill as claiming in the Assembly that “everything in healthcare is fine.”
He pointed to the memo on RUH occupational therapists as “again showing the chaos that is happening in Saskatchewan hospitals.” He also pointed to concerns about Indigenous care, pointing to an FSIN ombudsman report on the state of healthcare for Indigenous people, with a report of 500 incidents of people not getting quality care.
“Saskatchewan healthcare is in a crisis in this province,” Clarke said. The minister wants to pretend like it isn’t. My question to Jeremy Cockrill today is what is he going to do to fix the crisis and healthcare right now, because what they are doing is not working”
