The care that Saskatchewan people expect and deserve from our hospitals and care centres continues to suffer from the Sask. Party’s mismanagement and deepening cuts. Today, more information was revealed about the 20 front-line health care workers being eliminated in the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region(RQHR) .
“Instead of keeping their promise to protect healthcare, we see an almost constant stream of layoff announcements in our hospitals where staff are already struggling to provide the care they know their patients deserve,” said NDP Health Critic Danielle Chartier. “When will the Sask. Party step back and recognize the damage they’re doing to health care in Saskatchewan?”
The cuts revealed today follow a growing list of layoff announcements across the province. While most of the details have still not been released, it is clear that mental heatlh services will be deeply affected from these cuts. This is concerning given that rates of hospitalization for chronic depression in RQHR are higher than diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.
“Just last year, following the release of the mental health and addictions report, the goal was set for Saskatchewan health regions to increase access to quality mental health and addictions services by 2019. Now, instead of investment, we see cutbacks,” said Chartier. “The Sask. Party has been mismanaging health care in our province for far too long and these latest layoffs are just further proof of how little they cared about these goals and their commitments in the first place.”