“This is not an issue with revenue, this is a matter of priorities,” said Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck.
Janell Hubbard is cautioning her nieces and nephews from entering the health-care field in Saskatchewan amid short-staffing and other mounting issues.
“Staff members are burning out. They are exhausted, they are frustrated and they feel disrespected and ignored,” said Hubbard, a continuing care assistant for over 20 years and general vice-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 5430.
As the provincial election draws closer (it’s scheduled to take place on or before Oct. 28), she’s happy that health care is getting attention in the lead-up but feels urgent action is needed from the province.
On Monday, Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck announced a plan to spend $1.1 billion more on health care over four years.
“After 17 years of the Sask. Party government, our health-care system in this province is in crisis,” Beck said Monday during a media event outside the Regina General Hospital.
The NDP’s plan was described as focusing on “critical front-line services, implementing an aggressive strategy to keep doctors and nurses and health-care professionals working in Saskatchewan.”
One issue Beck sees is the number of casual and part-time positions currently vacant in the province. She promises to create new full-time positions while also establishing a nursing task force.
At the same time that Beck was speaking on Monday, the government was touting its Health Human Resources (HHR) action plan. The plan was first announced on Sept. 7, 2022 with the aim of attracting, training and retaining health-care workers in Saskatchewan.
According to the province, “over $300 million has now been invested in initiatives” as part of the HHR plan.
The government says, in the 24 months since implementing the program, 218 physicians from outside of the province and 35 physicians from outside the country were recruited. In that time, the province also hired “a pediatric gastroenterologist, four new psychiatrists, two perfusionists and a new physician assistant.”
Beck took issue with those figures, saying the government is quick to mention hires while it shies away from the number of workers leaving the sector.
“The reality is that we continue to lose more health-care professionals out of the province than any other province,” offered Beck, adding that the province previously had two pediatric gastroenterologists but had been without one for over a year.
Meanwhile, the government highlighted its retention policies brought in through the HHR plan. That includes 65 part-time nursing positions being transitioned to full-time ones and “hiring 245 new and enhanced full-time permanent positions in high-priority occupations, including registered nurses, to stabilize staffing in rural and northern areas.”
As for why health-care workers should trust the NDP, Hubbard said during Monday’s event that she sees common ground between the workers and the party.
“They share our priorities about public health care, keeping our services public. We suspect the government doesn’t share those priorities,” said Hubbard.
“We want to see health care stay public.”
Minister of Health Everett Hindley said in a press release the HHR plan was “ambitious but necessary” as the government sought “to stabilize and reinforce our valued health-care professionals.”
Beck took a decidedly different tone, calling it the “least effective plan in the country right now” when it comes to rebuilding a health-care system battered by the pandemic.
Hubbard said much of what’s been on offer from the government so far has been “lip service.”
As for the price tag, Beck said the NDP’s commitment was made in conjunction with the promise to not raise taxes. Her position was that “this is not an issue with revenue, this is a matter of priorities.”
That means phasing out travel nurse contracts, out-of-province surgeries and other outsourced procedures.
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