SASK. PARTY BLOCKS EMERGENCY MOTION FOR BI-PARTISAN HEALTHCARE TASKFORCE
REGINA – More Saskatchewan people are going without primary care after at least four family doctors left Yorkton in recent months. While the Sask. Party claims their recruitment efforts are “the best in the country,” the Health Minister is privately admitting that the number of departures is higher than reported.
“People can’t access a family doctor. The Sask. Party is clearly driving healthcare workers out of the province but instead of fixing the problem, they’re spending more time trying to hide it from the public,” said Vicki Mowat, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Health.
In July 2024, at least four family doctors left Yorkton's Sunrise Health and Wellness Centre, leaving residents like Angela Prokopetz without primary care. Angela, a local cattle farmer, paid out-of-pocket for an MRI due to long wait times. But without a doctor to review her results, she was only advised by a nurse to attend physiotherapy, leaving her without a clear diagnosis.
She wrote to the Sask. Party Health Minister to advocate for better care. The Minister admitted that an entirely different Yorkton clinic, Yorkton Alliance Healthcare Clinic, had closed.
Monday, the Saskatchewan NDP introduced an emergency motion to launch an all-party taskforce to start fixing the primary care crisis. The taskforce would have been composed of elected MLAs from both sides of the aisle and would have worked with municipal leaders and frontline healthcare workers to propose immediate solutions to solve the healthcare crisis. The Sask. Party blocked the taskforce, despite presiding over the worst rates of healthcare worker retention in Canada.
“We need to put politics aside and find solutions. We need an all hands on deck strategy that ensures Saskatchewan patients are getting the best possible care,” said Mowat. “Everyone from doctors, to nurses, to mayors and reeves, wants to get together to build those solutions together. Today, the Sask. Party showed that once again, they’re more interested in playing petty politics than actually delivering quality public healthcare for the people of Saskatchewan.”
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