Late last week, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses released anonymous complaints from front-line healthcare workers reporting staffing and bed shortages, outdated and faulty equipment, and inadequate care in the maternity wards at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital and the Regina General Hospital.
The Sask. Party tried to explain the situation away as “an extremely high number of births” in the month of July.
However, an internal memo leaked to the Opposition from someone inside a Saskatoon hospital shows that the number of deliveries in the unit in July 2025 was 492 — the same number of deliveries performed in July 2024.
“The Sask. Party is clearly lying in a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that they cut the healthcare budget and are driving nurses and doctors out of Saskatchewan,” said Meara Conway, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Health Minister. “Moe and Cockrill need to apologize to the women of Saskatchewan and explain how they let things get so bad.”
According to a nurse who asked not be identified for fear of retribution, "It is not uncommon in labour and delivery to have unsafe patient ratios, and for women to labour in triage for hours suffering in pain because there are simply no beds,” she said.
“This summer babies have been born in the triage room where there is no equipment to resuscitate a baby if it is needed. This is not safe.”
“After 18 years in power, the Sask. Party is more focused on trying to cover up issues than on fixing them,” said Jared Clarke, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for Rural and Remote Health.
“The people of Saskatchewan deserve a government focused on building strong healthcare for people, now and into the future.”
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