Leaked SHA dashboard reveals four Saskatchewan hospitals on bypass
REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck and Health Critic Vicki Mowat called on Premier Scott Moe to be transparent and publicly report hospital closures after a leaked SHA dashboard revealed four of Saskatchewan’s largest hospitals on bypass.
“Just the other day, a steelworker who lives near a potash mine told me that when there’s a medical emergency, people don’t dial 911 first. They google, hoping to see which emergency rooms are actually open,” said Beck. “It’s absolutely unacceptable that folks are being forced to drive from hospital to hospital with no assurances that the doors will be open. Every minute matters when you’re having a medical emergency.”
The Opposition received a leaked image of the SHA’s critical care dashboard for April 25. It shows Royal University, St. Paul’s, Yorkton and Swift Current hospitals on bypass, turning sick patients away. The leaked dashboard also reveals numerous Saskatchewan hospitals running short staffed or experiencing shortages of beds and ventilators.
The Sask. Party government has recently shown a pattern of limiting the public’s access to critical healthcare information, including sending hush memos to healthcare workers, pulling down the list of family doctors accepting patients and failing to report hospital service disruptions.
“Putting a ‘back in fifteen minutes’ sign on the front door might work for a coffee shop, but when it comes to our emergency rooms, that’s just not acceptable and the Sask. Party should know it,” said Mowat. “Saskatchewan used to be a leader in healthcare innovation and we need to get back to that.”
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