SASKATOON — The Official Opposition has erupted again at the Sask. Party government over its response to a patient seeking treatment out of province.
The NDP has accused Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill of “gaslighting” in an official response to Tammy O’Brien, a Saskatoon resident who needed to go to Edmonton for a complex Gamma Knife brain tumour surgery.
At a news conference in January, NDP Associate Health Critic Keith Jorgenson demanded the government apologize to O’Brien after she sought help from the province to cover her medical and travel expenses. Instead, he said, government officials suggested she try crowdsourcing to cover her expenses.
On Thursday, the NDP said Cockrill finally responded to O’Brien’s request to cover expenses. According to the NDP news release, the response in that letter was that the province “will not and does not cover such expenses."
“I needed this treatment to save my life and had no choice but to leave the province to receive it,” said O’Brien in a statement.
“Now they are sending me this letter stating that no out-of-the-province travel reimbursement is available in Saskatchewan. It’s signed by the Minister himself, but the government's own website says something else entirely.”
The NDP went on to accuse the government of not following its own policies, saying the Government of Saskatchewan website states it reimburses travel and accommodation expenses for certain cancer diagnostic services up to $1,500. Pediatric patients and one parent or guardian are eligible up to a maximum of $2,000.
“Tammy is right to be mad — as if having a brain tumour isn’t enough, she’s also getting the run-around from her government too,” said Carla Beck, Saskatchewan NDP leader, in a statement.
"First it’s nickel and diming cancer patients for parking fees. Now they’re gaslighting people like Tammy who can’t afford to go to Alberta for lifesaving surgery. Do these guys have no heart?”
In response, the Ministry of Health provided Sask Today with an emailed statement along the same lines as a similar response it issued last month, in which it stated the “cost of this patient’s treatment was covered.”
But it reiterated the ministry “does not cover costs associated with travel, accommodations, or meals, except in limited programs, such as for pediatric patients under the age of 16 who need a parent or guardian to accompany them out-of-province, and for eligible patients to receive breast cancer diagnostic services in Calgary.”
The ministry said the Canada Revenue Agency may allow these expenses to be claimed as tax deductions under the Income Tax Act and also pointed to community organizations throughout Saskatchewan that may offer assistance, such as Hope Air and the Kinsmen Foundation.
