YORKTON – Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck and a number of the party’s MLAs were in Yorkton Wednesday to host a ‘town hall’ meeting on health care.
Beck began by saying that the party sees a tremendous amount of opportunity, but added that is a tempered view as there are also challenges in the province, and in health care specifically.
Those challenges are the reason for a process of consultations with various groups; frontline health care workers, municipal leaders, and the public looking at health care.
Beck noted the NDP do not have a magic solution, that is why they are listening to others to gather the best ideas.
Vicki Mowat Shadow Minister of Health for the NDP said it’s widely known health care has issues.
“Everyone knows someone who has had a bad experience in health care,” she said.
Yet nothing is being done, suggested Mowat.
“This government (the Saskatchewan Party led government) has stopped listening,” she said.
So the NDP are seeking workable alternatives to build a better health care future, said Mowat.
When it was the public’s turn Gayle Schuster said while there are issues, it must be remembered most health care staff are dedicated to patient care – at least in Yorkton.
“You’ve got to realize there’s a lot of really great people working at the hospital,” she said, adding she knows that first hand after a health scare. “. . . The period of time I was there . . . I couldn’t ask for better people around me.”
However, Schuster said during her hospital stay she also saw the pressure health care professionals are under.
“While I was looked after very, very well, the staff was overworked,” she said, adding she could see “how difficult it is for them.”
Beck said that there are dedicated staff is one of the reasons “it is a system worth fighting for” adding staff “. . . are doing everything they can.”
But that said Beck suggested too “we are at a critical point in the heath care system.”
“We have to take care of the people who care for us,” said Mowat, adding she was paraphrasing something Beck had said recently.
The pressures on health care workers is causing burn out with some opting for a career change. Mowat said clearly something “meaningful” has to be done in terms of staff retention and recruitment.
In terms of Yorkton specifically the long standing desire for a new regional hospital came to the fore.
“Yorkton also has an issue with infrastructure,” noted Beck, pointing to the hospital built in 1962.
A new hospital has been talked about going back as far as 2011, with a conceptual plan initially unveiled in 2012, and there is still no date announced for when construction might start, she added.
By contrast the NDP have announced the hospital would launch if the party were elected to form government in 2028.
“It’s time we got that hospital built,” said Beck.
The other message was that the new hospital must be fully recognized as a regional one – one serving a region of up to 200,000 people.
Lenore Pinder, NDP candidate for Yorkton in the last provincial election said in some ways we are spending money which should be paying for the new facility.
The existing (facility) is in such disrepair,” she said, pointing to a problematic “organism” which couldn’t be controlled due to conditions, so flooring had to be fully replaced in a portion of the aging structure.
“We’re spending tons of money,” just to maintain the out-dated facility, said Pinder.
The situation then impacts the beleaguered staff who must work harder “to take care of the people they want to care for,” she said.
Jared Clarke, Shadow Minister of Municipal Affairs, Environment, said the new hospital can’t be built in isolation either, suggesting you can’t just put in a building “and think it will solve the problem.”
Instead you need to ensure supporting infrastructure is in place, housing for hospital staff as an example, said Clarke.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority also came under scrutiny.
“We’re hearing a lot of concerns about the organization,” said Mowat, adding the SHA has been slow in achieving some of the anticipated outcomes of amalgamating into a single provincial entity.
While Mowat said there have been “some positives” the flipside is that people have lost their local voice in terms of their health care.
Mowat said it is the people who can make the difference.
“Our greatest resource has always been the people . . . They’re not afraid of hard work. They know how to innovate,” she said.
The meeting was the first of several town halls where members of the public will be asked to share their stories on how the Sask. Party has failed to deliver healthcare and their ideas on what should be changed moving forward.
