On Tuesday, Saskatchewan NDP Associate Shadow Health Minister Keith Jorgenson stood outside the government’s Saskatoon Cabinet Office to decry the cowardly actions of Premier Scott Moe, Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill and the rest of the province’s Ministers.
Over the weekend, new closures of the emergency room at the hospital in Kamsack were discovered. In all, at least 16 rural Saskatchewan communities have seen their emergency room or medical labs close once or a series of times since the beginning of June.
“What has been the Sask. Party response to this disaster? Well, you all know it’s been nothing,” Jorgenson told reporters.
“They either are lost and don’t know what to do or they don’t care. Maybe it’s both. This is pathetic, disgraceful leadership.
“We deserve public accountability. We deserve a plan to prevent these emergency rooms from closing and to properly staff them over the long-term.”
Patients arriving at the ER in Kamsack were met with a notice telling them to head 30 minutes west to the hospital in Canora or nearly an hour to hospitals in Yorkton or Preeceville; however, the latter hospital has seen its own closures in recent weeks.
Further emergency room closures have been seen in communities like Watrous, Edam, St. Walburg, Paradise Hill, Kipling, Broadview, Herbert, Porcupine Plain, Leader, Arcola, Kerrobert, Turtleford, Maple Creek, and Biggar.
“We don’t have to settle for this — we can demand better,” Jorgenson said.
“We can elect a government that is focused on the future, that has a plan to fix healthcare and ensure it’s there for people when and where they need that.
“The Saskatchewan NDP is building that plan. We have much more to say about the future of healthcare in our province in the days and weeks ahead.”
Jorgenson also urged the people of Saskatchewan to directly contact his office with critical information about emergency room closures and other healthcare issues. His office can be reached at 306-250-1210.
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