Long-term care and issues surrounding doctor shortages and health-care personnel were on the radar of the provincial NDP last week as they toured the Northwest.
Wednesday, July 7 NDP health critic Judy Junor and labour critic Andy Iwanchuk joined Len Taylor in the area to look at health care facilities as part of the consultation process and policy development in those areas for the party.
Junor is doing a wide-ranging health tour, focusing on long-term care and other health issues, this summer. The tour stopped in Edam to visit the long-term facility there, the Lady Minto Health Care Centre. The health critic says she was there to talk to people to learn about the issues in health care and learn what the budget impacts will be, and said the tour will help the NDP in its policy development on the issue.
What she learned most of all was that "there's a big interest - quite a huge interest, actually - in long-term care," said Junor.
She was impressed with the Lady Minto facility, calling it very well-kept and well-lit, and added the facility is a little unusual because it is able to accommodate couples with adjoining rooms - something that has been a big issue for people who don't want to be separated after years of marriage when they move into long-term care.
Making sure there are acute care or long-term care facilities available in communities is another issue Junor is concerned about, noting the desire of people to stay in the communities they've lived in all their lives.
It is an issue for the communities because you will have seniors who either "won't move there or are leaving the community because the acute care isn't there for them, and sometimes not the long-term care, either," said Junor.
Assisted living facilities is another issue Junor is concerned about. She says there is not only a need for assisted living facilities but for subsidized assisted living, as many seniors are forced into a position where they cannot afford assisted living facilities or personal care homes.
She said policies will be developed in the fall on the long-term care issue that the NDP will be putting into its platform in 2011.
Last week's visit will not be the last for Junor in the region. In fact, this is just the start of a tour that will see her return to the Battlefords and also go to other communities to visit health care facilities in Cut Knife, Turtleford, Lloydminster and Meadow Lake. Her first visit was to Hafford to the long term care facility there around the end of May, and she has also been to Leader, Wawota and Melfort.
Junor said she learned the facility in Hafford has the capacity to open five more beds, that could be significant for Prairie North Health Region and Prince Albert Parkland Health Region in reducing waiting lists. She also said it could be accommodated without additional staffing and has asked the health minister to look into it.
"When you get out and actually talk in different communities you're hearing not only problems but also some solutions," said Junor.
Battlefords MLA Len Taylor said that when Junor is in the Battlefords she expects to visit River Heights Lodge and Battlefords District Care, as well as Battlefords Union Hospital and Saskatchewan Hospital, to get a better sense of the needs at the facilities in the area.
The goal is to build policy "as a result of a full understanding of facility needs in the province. And facility needs apply also to patient or family needs," said Taylor.
Taylor believes the process will strengthen the NDP in presenting policy alternatives to the current government, in advance of the election next year. He commended Junor for "committing herself to this rigorous summer process" of getting to know what is going on across Saskatchewan and putting so many facilities on her list of must-sees.
Other issues Junor has heard about on her tour include issues surrounding diagnostic equipment such as waiting lists to put cat-scans in place, as well as doctor shortages in rural communities and the closure of acute-care facilities and emergency rooms.
Taylor said a major concern in rural areas includes "doctor shortage, service shortage and fear" about the future of health care. He said Neilburg is another stop for the NDP because of a recent announcement it will lose an ambulance service stationed there.
Junor says with the issues in health care she worries the government will point to the issues in the public health care system and use those problems as an excuse to promote more private-health care options and manipulate public opinion towards supporting those moves.
"We are being led that way. We are being manipulated," Junor said, who believes the public should stand up and say "I'm not buying that."
A major concern for Taylor continues to be Saskatchewan Hospital. Taylor continues to worry about whether money will be there to build that facility and others that are needed, although he does say it is his impression the planning process "has been kick-started again," with some agreement reached between the government and health region on the parameters of the scoping that needs to be done.
Still, "we're three years behind on this project," said Taylor. "I'm growing more and more skeptical about the ability of this government to conclude this process."
Also part of the tour that day was Andy Iwanchuk, the labour critic, who represents Saskatoon Fairview in the legislature, but who grew up and went to high school in North Battleford.
Iwanchuk joined in when the NDP met with the CUPE local that deals with Prairie North Health Region, one of the unions (along with SGEU and SEIUWest) that has been working without a contract. Taylor said they just learned the government is going to allocate only another day or two to such contract talks over the summer.
Both Taylor and Junor said the members are valued workers in the health care system, many of them living in rural communities, and that the government has to resolve that contract dispute respectfully.
Iwanchuk's findings on labour issues will also be going into the policy dialogue for the NDP in the runup to next fall's provincial election.
