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Official opposition calls on the Sask Party to do better with regards to healthcare shortages. (Google Maps)
NDP Presser

‘A lifeline’: NDP call on Sask., government to do better amid healthcare service disruptions

Jan 29, 2025 | 4:14 PM

Kristine Weisbeck was in active heart failure in the days that followed the birth of her third child in Saskatoon in the fall of 2020 and she had some hemorrhaging.

Once she had stabilized, she went home to Lloydminster.

“The next couple of days, I started feeling heart palpitations and shortness of breath, fluid retention,” she said.

“I checked my blood pressure, and it was up pretty high, it was about 180 over 90 initially.”

Weisbeck went to Lloydminster Hospital and sat in the waiting room for the next three to four hours.

As a first responder, she knew she was at risk of a stroke and at this point, her vision was failing. After speaking to a triage nurse and informing the nurse that she was blind in one eye, they moved quickly.

“The first doctor I saw, he didn’t even do the basics of the urine test and he was going to send me home,” she said.

“A second doctor luckily came on and did some more proper tests.”

That’s when she discovered she was in heart failure and had 30 lbs of fluid in her body.

Fast forward to another incident that led her to having to go to another hospital 45 minutes away in Vermillion, Alberta and Weisbeck grew concerned enough to want to speak out as a patient advocate.

A call out

Now, she has joined the Saskatchewan NDP’s call for improvements to the provincial health care following the death of a Lloydminster man who died enroute after being redirected to North Battleford following a car accident. He needed a CT scan and there was no staff to operate the one at the Lloydminster Hospital.

“The government is failing to recruit and retain healthcare workers in west central Saskatchewan,” said shadow Minister of Health Vicki Mowat during a press conference on Wednesday.

“It leads to devastating service closures, putting patients at risk.”

According to a list of closures obtained through a freedom of information act, there have been 789 days of disruption in roughly the last four years. Of those, the 24 days that took place at the Lloydminster Hospital were specifically related to CT scan.

“The health minister is missing in action, we haven’t heard from him, he hasn’t commented on this issue,” she said.

“Presumably he’s been briefed on these extreme staffing challenges and closures that are happening in his community.”

In part of a statement on behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and the government “remain committed to strengthening and stabilizing health care services across the province, including in Lloydminster and the surrounding area.”

The statement went on to say that the SHA is continuing working to provide 24/7 CT scan coverage in the border city.

“While this service is largely in place, we anticipate occasional disruptions to service due to staffing challenges and to allow for required maintenance to be performed,” it read.

“Recruitment efforts in Lloydminster include posting with additional advertisements, offering return for service bursaries and working with provincial partners to promote opportunities.”

battlefordsNOW also reached out to Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill for comment and is awaiting a response.

Temporarily out of service

The opposition and advocates spoke to other locations that have faced closures such as Wilkie and District Health Centre, which according to the government website, has had emergency and outpatient services temporarily out of service since June 2021.

“Even as resources are being pulled from Kindersley, Unity and even Alberta, wait times are rising,” said Mowat.

Vicki Mowat, Shadow Minister for Health and Rural and Remote Health Shadow Minister Meara Conway speak on the state of health care in west-central Saskatchewan. (Saskatchewan NDP Photo)

According to the list, those communities have faced their own disruptions including in laboratory, obstetrics and radiography and Shadow Minister for Rural and Remote Health Meara Conway said the local Sask Party representatives aren’t fighting for their constituents.

“They’re putting party politics ahead of the people who elected them,” she said, specifically mentioning Kindersley-Biggar MLAs Kim Gartner, Cut Knife-Turtleford MLA James Thorsteinson and Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young.

“Our call today is simple, Gartner, Thorsteinson, Young need to do their jobs and they need to stand up to (Cockrill),” she said.

“They need to drive down the same roads their constituents take to North Battleford where the health minister lives and make the case for their constituents, fight for their community.”

Following the statement, Conway read the statement provided by Weisbeck, “Healthcare in Lloydminster is encountering considerable difficulties stemming from resource shortages across various sectors,” she read in part of the patient advocate who has started an advocacy page on social media.

“Most notably insufficient staffing that has led to the unavailability of the CT scanner, which the community contributed to by covering half of its cost.

The government responds

Weisbeck, for her part, provided some e-mail correspondence with Mark Goossens, Director of Intergovernmental, Indigenous Relations and Health Emergency Management to battlefordsNOW.

In it he explained that there were a lot of questions and as a result they grouped them into themes for a more concise reply.

“Along with the attached information I would note that this year’s Ministry of Health budget is $7.59 billion, an increase of $726.4 million, or 10.6 per cent, over the previous year,” he wrote.

“It is the largest-ever increase in health care funding to expand patient care and services. The Government of Saskatchewan’s Health Human Resources (HHR) Action Plan is an aggressive health-care initiative that aims to build a stronger, more robust health-care workforce over the next several years.”

Weisbeck has taken her grassroots effort to social media and her page, ‘Advocating for Lloydminster Healthcare’ now has over 400 members. She is hoping that the conversations surrounding the issues continue to grow and wants to use it as a way to document everything.

Addressing the social media video by Chelsey Lujan, the daughter of the man who died enroute, she said it was a sad but necessary video.

“It’s something that people need to hear because it could be anybody next at this point.”

julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social