From left: Sask NDP candidate for Saskatoon-Nutana Erika Ritchie, Sask NDP Battlefords candidate Tom Kroczynski and local resident Amanda Singh say the Sask Party government failed the healthcare system. (Kenneth Cheung/ battlefordsNOW staff)

By Kenneth Cheung

sask votes

‘This is unbelievable’ : Sask NDP and supporters share healthcare woes

Oct 4, 2024 | 8:22 PM

Battlefords resident Amanda Singh struggles with a disease that causes severe pain and inflammation in her lungs, heart and spine. In the early days of her illness, she would have to wait at the hospital for three hours before she was seen by a doctor.

“A few years later the wait grew to about six hours and now it takes up to eight hours before I receive pain relief on average,” she said.

Singh joined Sask NDP candidates Tom Kroczynski (Battlefords) and Erika Ritchie (Saskatoon-Nutana) for a press conference Friday afternoon in North Battleford. She explained she isn’t the only person in her family who has faced challenges with the healthcare system. Singh shared a story about her great-aunt who required urgent medical attention but couldn’t get the care she needed at Battlefords Union Hospital due to a lack of beds and staff.

“She waited eight hours for pain medication. She was then sent home because there were no beds available. A week later, she struggled to breathe, and we returned to the ER,” said Singh. “Yet another eight hour wait, they discovered a bladder infection, and they couldn’t admit her for more observation, despite a recent four pound weight loss and feeling faint.”

In another example, Singh’s husband, who became paralyzed after an accident, was struggling with unbearable pain. When they called paramedics, they were told only one ambulance was available because all of the others were transferring patients to centres outside of the Battlefords.

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Kroczynski called the challenges in the healthcare system ‘unbelievable’. The intensive care unit at Battlefords Union Hospital he said, was closed for 48 continuous days in a span of just seven weeks.

“Scott Moe and the Sask. Party have abandoned the Battlefords as our hospital deals with rolling blackouts. Sask. Party’s Jeremy Cockrill has been silent on this and hasn’t done anything to fight for the people he pretends to represent,” said Kroczynski.

Ritchie said the crisis isn’t just isolated to the Battlefords. “The Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon was 350 times over capacity,” said Ritchie, adding that each nurse was responsible for 14 patients at a time while the hospital ran out of oxygen and stretchers. Ritchie said a Sask NDP government would deliver better healthcare for Saskatchewan with a strategy that includes investing an additional $1.1 billion into healthcare over four years to address the shortages, hire, train and retain healthcare workers.

“We’ve also committed to forming a nurses’ task force that will bring healthcare workers together to listen directly to them on where the opportunities lie to improve our healthcare system,” said Ritchie. “ We’ve also committed to converting a number of casual and part-time positions.”

Ritchie further explained they would hire more full time positions and phase out the use of travel nurses on contract, which they say costs three times more than local staff.

The Sask Party, meanwhile, poked holes in the NDP’s fiscal plan, which leader Carla Beck released today. Saskatchewan Party Campaign Co-chair Donna Harpauer called it a ‘dishonest financial plan that inflates revenues, hides expenses, and leaves a $3 billion hole in their platform.’ Harpauer says the Sask NDP failed to account for several of its campaign promises, including the 1.1 billion in new health care funding over four years. In 2022, the government launched a Health Human Resources Action Plan with the goal of adding more than 1,000 professionals to the health system.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com