YORKTON - It was with a certain amount of irony – at least for those in Yorkton – that Jared Clarke, the recently appointed as the Saskatchewan NDP’s Shadow Minister for Rural and Remote Health, gave a media conference held in front of the Yorkton Regional Hospital Monday to raise concerns about health care services in the province.
While Clarke was focused on service disruptions that he says occur far too frequently at health facilities in the province, locally one couldn’t help but look over the MLA’s shoulder and whisper a much-repeated question ‘when does Yorkton get a new hospital?’
It’s a question of course we have been asking for years locally, and while the province notes work is being done toward it happening progress is at a glacial pace.
You would think by now studies into a new hospital would be largely a boilerplate exercise.
While communities differ slightly – Moose Jaw might not need the same services given its proximity to Regina – in the end a hospital is a hospital.
One would imagine a rather standard floor plan would have been developed, much like creating a row of houses in a subdivision. You might add a two car garage to one rather than a single, and go with a terrarium on another instead of a simple deck, but the basic plan stays the same to save costs and hasten builds.
Well in Yorkton we know there is no hasten in building the new hospital.
The situation is made more frustrating four years ago the community was asked to create a plan for a new facility. Time and money were invested, and a plan created, after which the government suggested it was too pricey and that time and money ended up basically wasted. You might have expected the government would have put a price tag limit on the plan pre any work being done so the design could have been designed within given parameters but alas that was not the case.
The situation has dragged so much the local Health Foundation stopped putting money aside for a build focusing instead of late in shoring up local health services with equipment purchases and staff training initiatives.
Of course how much pressure the Saskatchewan Party feels in terms of local desire to see a new hospital is questionable given the landslide win in the last provincial election. It’s rather easy to spin those results into ‘well Yorkton voters love everything we do’ if you are Premier Scott Moe and his caucus.
And so the new hospital, much like a mirage, remains a hazy dream, seemingly always a project for another day – or sadly another year.
