Family needing urgent kidney transplant joins NDP calls to fix health system

REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat was joined by the Rebalkin family to demand the government address the many surgeries and non-COVID services still being deferred or canceled due strains on the health system.

“Theresa Rebalkin is urgently waiting for a kidney transplant. Yet record-high COVID-19 hospitalizations and a devastating shortage of doctors and nurses has compromised access to the pre-operative care she so desperately needs,” said Mowat. “Her condition is deteriorating rapidly and she feels that the government is not being transparent about what is really happening in our health system.”

Today, members of the Legislative Assembly were joined by Theresa Rebalkin. Since 2019, Theresa has struggled to access a kidney transplant because she first needs parathyroid surgery, which requires a 3-5 day stay in hospital for post-operative care that Saskatchewan’s health system has until recently been unable to accommodate. Theresa had only just booked a parathyroid surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital for next month when she was warned it may be cancelled.

“Theresa’s story is heartbreaking, and like Jessica Bailey, Eden Janzen, Baby Helen, Blake Turnbull and Brennon Dulle she is one of so many Saskatchewan people failed by the Sask. Party’s pandemic mismanagement,” said Mowat. “When hospitals burst at the seams, surgeries are postponed and sick people go without urgent care. Theresa and the many others like her can wait no longer.”

The Official Opposition calls on the government to plan to immediately restore vital non-COVID services and explain why complicated and costly procedures needed to treat debilitating illnesses continue to be deferred.

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