To the Editor:
Like many of us, I read the story of Gail and Jim Sack, who nearly lost their lives to carbon monoxide poisoning , and was relieved that the North Battleford couple was found by a family member and saved.
The experience of this family also drove home the importance of Saskatchewan’s hyperbaric chamber in Moose Jaw. The government is planning to abandon the hyperbaric chamber when the new hospital opens in Moose Jaw, leaving Edmonton as the closest centre to get treatment for carbon dioxide or smoke inhalation.
The problem is that the new Moose Jaw hospital will be considerably smaller than the existing Moose Jaw Union Hospital. It was designed through the controversial John Black Lean process to be smaller with fewer beds, so things are being left out.
For example, the current hospital has 14 beds on the labour and delivery ward – but the new hospital will have six. The medicine unit currently has 36 inpatient rooms, but the new hospital will have only 20 inpatient rooms. Overall, instead of 99 rooms into which patients can be admitted, there will be 72 in the new hospital.
This could result in hallway medicine and overcrowding, as well as some patients being sent to other hospitals – including patients who need a hyperbaric chamber being sent to another province. After a decade of resource wealth in the province, this government should be providing more and better health care services – not less.
Danielle Chartier
NDP Health Critic
