Saskatchewan NDP accuses gov’t of hiding problems in health care

By Teena Monteleone

The Saskatchewan Party’s Ministry of Health is responding to a leaked memo to the NDP showing that the Battlefords Union Hospital (BUH) Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been closed for weeks.

Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck and Rural and Remote Health Critic Matt Love said Thursday the government’s lack of transparency is forcing communities and health-care workers across Saskatchewan to create Facebook groups and pages to inform local residents of community closures.

“If (the government) can send out memos, they can notify the public,” Love said during a press conference in Regina.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) memo shows that the BUH ICU was shut down on July 13 and will remain closed until Aug. 3. The closure will mean that anyone in need of intensive care will have to be transported to another facility during that time.

“They’re tired of the Sask. Party government that won’t be honest about their government’s failures, that would rather hide the problem than work to fix it or at least let people know when there is a closure in the area,” said Beck.

In an email to battlefordsNOW, the Ministry of Health said it was aware of the paused services at the ICU due to staffing challenges.

“Whenever a staffing shortage is identified, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) acts to replace those staff appropriately and as quickly as possible before any pauses or reductions are considered,” the email said. “However, ICU nurses are specially trained and there can be challenges staffing these shifts in summer.”

The email went on to say: “Adult Intensive Services functions as a provincial program. When beds are not available at an existing adult ICU site due to capacity or bypass, the patient will be transferred to one of the other ICU sites where their care needs can be met. As of this afternoon (July 27), the total adult ICU occupancy is at 75 per cent.”

The NDP said the Battlefords ICU closure is the latest health-care closure to not be listed on the SHA’s service disruptions page.

“There’s no discernible criteria or way to understand which closures end up on those websites and which ones don’t,” said Beck.

The Sask. Party MLA for the Battlefords, Jeremy Cockrill, said there is currently a lot of work being done at BUH including a significant renovation in the operating room to improve patient care, and some of those renovations are causing effects elsewhere in the hospital.

“Obviously people have a vested interest in what goes on in their local hospital. We have processes to notify the right groups — the groups that will be essentially using these areas and those procedures were followed,” said Cockrill.

“Obviously if someone is in need of care that can’t be provided on that day at BUH, there are ways to get them quickly to another facility – the closest facility nearby – where they can receive those services.”

Cockrill added the province has had good success recruiting 20 new nurses to the Battlefords over the last couple of months.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Nicole Garn