Three Saskatchewan cities are seeking to replace major medical facilities.
The Estevan Regional Nursing Home, Yorkton Regional Hospital and Weyburn General Hospital are all in need of replacement, according to their respective communities. So what is the state of affairs for the replacement of these three medical facilities?
Vicki Mowat, who is the NDP’s health critic, was asked recently about progress on proposed hospitals in Weyburn and Yorkton, and the proposed new regional nursing home for Estevan. Mowat initially spoke about the COVID-19 crisis in her reply, saying, “This comes down to is that in the birthplace of Medicare, people want to know that they'll have access to health care when they need it.
“We have been raising concerns about the rural emergency room closures, the 12 closures that happened pre-emptively during this pandemic. We certainly understand that if there was a surge in cases in those areas, it would be required to dedicate resources to fighting the pandemic. But without that surge, that was a pre-emptive decision and it was a mistake.
“We have since seen government backtracking on some of that but something that is really highlighted is the pre-existing service disruptions that rural residents are living with every day across the province. We had received a (freedom of information request) around service disruptions that saw just how common it is to have disruptions in emergency rooms, in labs, you know, many of these services that that folks rely on, that care is going to be available for them. And so, we know that access to healthcare is very important to citizens across the province.
Mowat continued: “We know that one step is building new facilities, but a piece of that is also … directly related to what we've been talking about today, is that once you build those facilities, you also have to staff them. And what we've seen from this government is that they have demonstrated that their ability to staff those facilities, is limited.
“They're not putting forward the resources to making sure that there aren't physician shortages and staff shortages in those facilities. So it's one thing to build them. We also have to staff them and make sure that we're not just building shiny new facilities. We're also dealing with the crumbling health facilities. There's a $3.5 billion infrastructure deficit of work that needs to be done on health care facilities, so that they don't crumble in the first place.
“In locations like Estevan, I certainly understand this is a needed facility, one that the community has worked very hard to get the dollars. And there's really no plan from this government in terms of prioritizing which projects, receive those … dollars. We asked about long-term forecasting all the time; when can this … community expect this facility? When can this community expect this facility? And they don't have a clear answer. So it's definitely a very disappointing situation.
Mowat concluded, “It is incredibly disappointing for these communities that are looking for access to health care and they want to be able to stay in rural Saskatchewan and have that access to health care, but don't have it.”
NDP Leader Ryan Meili has also put out a statement calling for independent oversight of seniors’ long-term care and the restoration of legislated minimum care standards.
