Sask. family forced to travel to Toronto for daughter’s health care

For the past year, the Sorons have been living a nightmare for any parent – their 2 1/2-year-old daughter suffering in pain with no appropriate specialists in Saskatchewan to see her, let alone figure out how to help her.

Their daughter has had gastrointestinal issues since she was born, and had been seeing the province’s only pediatric GI specialist in Saskatoon until she left in May of 2023 — nearly one year ago.

Since then, Kaitlyn Soron has been fighting to get her daughter the health care she needs.

“Every parent knows you’ll do anything for your child. I don’t have it in me to stop, I won’t stop until she gets what she needs,” said Kaitlyn, whose family was invited to the Saskatchewan legislature on Wednesday by the Opposition NDP.

First, Katilyn had to fight to get her daughter seen by the locum set up by the provincial government when the specialist left. Then there was a referral to a specialist in Alberta, but that practice rejected the referral because of its own patient load.

Then there was a referral to Montreal, but that clinic pushed the referral off to Toronto because of potential language barriers. Now the family is waiting for the appointment in Toronto.

“She’s on extremely high doses of medication, she still has episodes of discomfort every day (and) we’re still going up on her medication. To be honest, the countdown until we go to Toronto is on because we need some answers,” said Kaitlyn.

For the trip to get her daughter her health care that she can’t access in Saskatchewan, the family is having to pay its own expenses out of pocket amounting to thousands of dollars.

“It feels like a lot for our family to bear, being the government has not done their part in filling these positions,” she said.

Kaitlyn and her husband want the provincial government to reimburse them for their expenses.

Health Minister Everett Hindley spoke to media about the Sorons’ situation Wednesday, explaining that the Saskatchewan Health Authority is working to finalize contracts for two pediatric gastroenterologists, though he couldn’t give a timeline for when they might start work.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll have that concluded so that we can have the proper staffing complement there to make sure that we are staffing that particular program the way it should be,” said Hindley.

The minister said the government and health authority have been working hard to fill those, and other health-care vacancies, and that in the past couple of budgets, the government has been working to build a support team around the pediatric GI specialty.

“So that when we do get those pediatric gastroenterologists hired and signed a contract, that there is a full support team around there that can provide the wide range of services that would come under that particular specialty,” said Hindley.

He defended the efforts on this front, saying it’s difficult to find people for these kinds of specialties across the country, so it’s not just Saskatchewan having difficulties.

Families across the province have been dealing with this problem, trying to find the best way to get their kids the care they need when specialists aren’t available.