REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Health Critic Vicki Mowat and Ethics and Democracy Critic Meara Conway put Premier Scott Moe on blast after his government issued a confidential memo to healthcare workers demanding they shut up and stay silent about the state of healthcare in Saskatchewan.
“The Sask. Party government is running our hospitals into the ground and muzzling the nurses and doctors trying to speak up,” said Mowat. “We’re in a national competition to hire and retain healthcare workers. This government should be listening to healthcare workers, not silencing and censoring them.”
On February 7, Opposition MLAs visited the town of Lanigan as a part of the Saskatchewan NDP’s province-wide Healthcare Solutions and Consultation Outreach. While meeting with the Mayor and Council and healthcare workers offsite, a confidential muzzling-memo was issued to employees of the Lanigan Hospital.
The muzzling-memo stated that hospital employees were forbidden from answering questions or providing any information to Opposition MLAs. Any and all questions, the muzzling-memo states, must be directed to “Central Coordination.”
Yesterday, Minister of Rural and Remote Health Everett Hindley said the criticism that his government is centralizing healthcare decision making in the Premier’s office and failing to listen to frontline healthcare workers “could not be more wrong.”
“This muzzling-memo raises serious questions about the Sask. Party’s credibility when it comes to healthcare,” said Conway. “The Sask. Party’s decision to centralize health regions has not improved our hospitals or made waits shorter. If anything, we’ve seen repeated attempts by this current government to politicize healthcare decision-making and silence healthcare workers from speaking out.”
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Poor working conditions, favouritism, $300K travel nurse pay at issue
REGINA - Today, the Official Opposition released a letter signed by 49 emergency room nurses in Saskatoon. The letter slams the Sask. Party government for failing to support Saskatchewan nurses and curb the province’s reliance on expensive out-of-province travel nurses.
REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Critic for First Nations and Métis Relations Betty Nippi-Albright hosted a Day of Action with Indigenous leaders from Nekaneet First Nation, Yellow Quill First Nation, Waterhen Lake First Nation, Onion Lake Cree Nation, Carry The Kettle First Nation, Key First Nation and the residential school support team from Yorkton Tribal Council. Together, they continue to draw attention to the Sask. Party government’s disregard for the Duty to Consult process.
MOOSE JAW - Today, the Official Opposition stood with Taylor Enns, president of the Moose Jaw Firefighters Association, and Brayden Dutchak, the son of a cancer survivor. Together, they called on the Sask. Party government to reopen Saskatchewan’s only hyperbaric chamber.
Records show former Sask. Party Finance Minister lobbied for Calgary surgery scheme on behalf of a major Sask. Party donor
REGINA - Today, the Official Opposition grilled the Premier and his Minister of Health after the Minister misled the public, claiming that he had not been lobbied by a former Sask. Party MLA when Saskatchewan's official lobbyist logs show the exact opposite.