The Sask. Party says one thing, SHA memo says another
REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck and Health Critic Vicki Mowat released a leaked internal SHA memo. The memo shows that the Sask. Party’s recruitment strategies have failed to adequately staff the Regina General Hospital and avert a bed closure in its Medical Intensive Care Unit. The memo also states that there have been “a number of contracts cancelled at the last minute”, leading to no staffing replacement until the end of summer.
“While the Sask. Party says one thing publicly, their internal memos paint a much different picture. Their recruitment strategy isn’t working,” said Beck. “This province is the birthplace of Medicare. Yet under Scott Moe, we have the longest hospital waits and too many patients can’t find a family doctor. If the Sask. Party isn’t interested in rolling up their sleeves and doing the work, we are.”
The leaked internal memo, sent June 28, stands in stark contrast to repeated claims by the Health Minister that their plan is working and that the Sask. Party has “the most ambitious human health resource plan in the nation of Canada”.
The Sask. Party’s recruitment strategy has been heavily criticized by Saskatchewan healthcare workers. And the Provincial Auditor found that even if the government’s plan is executed perfectly, Saskatchewan will still be over 1,000 healthcare workers short.
As other provinces like British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario move aggressively to recruit more healthcare workers and increase access to family doctors, the Sask. Party is dragging Saskatchewan further and further behind.
“If you’re more focused on how to spin the problem rather than fix the problem, we’re going to continue to lose healthcare workers and our patients will wait longer and longer for care,” said Mowat. “We need to be working with our healthcare workers on retention strategies while promoting some of our under-utilized staff, like our part-time and casual healthcare workers, into full-time positions to reduce the strain on the system.”
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