Meadow Lake Hospital has a 24-hour emergency department, 32 in-patient beds, one palliative bed, 52 long-term care beds, two labour and delivery rooms, and two operating rooms, according to SHA. (Google Maps)

By CKOM News

Campaign trail

Health-care cuts forced woman to give birth on side of highway: Sask. NDP

Oct 20, 2024 | 12:00 PM

A woman in labour from Meadow Lake was told to drive to Lloydminster because of staff shortages at her local hospital, and ended up giving birth on the side of the road, Saskatchewan NDP said.

NDP Leader Carla Beck shared the woman’s story in a news release on Saturday that slammed Sask. Party Leader Scott Moe for his party’s cuts to healthcare services.

“Scott Moe’s cuts are hurting people in every part of this province,” said Beck in the release.

Meadow Lake woman Kendal Carlberg said she was was at home with her husband when she began having contractions in 2023. They headed to Meadow Lake Hospital (Northwest Health Facility), only to be told that the operating room was closed to deliveries due to short staffing.

Carlberg was then told by health-care staff to drive 186 kms to the nearest hospital in Lloydminster — nearly two hours drive away.

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She did not make it to Lloydminster, and laboured on the side of the highway, with her husband on a 911 call, waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Carlberg delivered her baby on the highway, with an ambulance arriving 20 minutes after her husband’s call was placed.

“Because of health-care worker shortages, myself and my unborn child were put at risk,” said Carlberg in the release.

“Meadow Lake is a medical hub for Saskatchewan’s north, and the operating room should never be closed due to short staffing. This is unacceptable in Canada, and in Saskatchewan. I often have thoughts of what could have happened to myself or my baby if something went wrong.”

Beck said that in the last five years under Moe, Meadow Lake Hospital has experienced 195 health-care blackouts — the highest number in the province — and health-care services were disrupted for 936 days, meaning there were more days with service disruptions than without.

The Saskatchewan NDP has promised voters they would make a $1.1 billion investment to hire, recruit and retain front-line workers across the province, as well as opening the door for more Saskatchewan people to join the healthcare workforce and provide care in their home communities.

Moe has highlighted women’s health during the election campaign, promising to introduce a 50 per cent refundable tax credit — up to $10,000 — to help cover the cost of a first fertility treatment, and to make it easier to screen for cervical cancer by allowing women 25 to 69 to have self-screening tests for the human papillomavirus infection, or HPV.