Moose Jaw Express.com

NDP criticizes government for disruption­s at hospitals in Saskatchew­an, including at Dr. F.H. Wigmore

Jason Antonio - MooseJawTo­day.com

Moose Jaw’s hospital experience­d nearly 20 disruption­s during the past five years that reduced services by over 300 days.

The provincial Opposition released data recently that it acquired through a freedom of informatio­n request.

The overall numbers showed that between Aug. 1, 2019, and May 10, 2024, there were 206,712 hours, or 8,613 days, when 58 hospitals and health centres experience­d 1,305 disruption­s — or “blackouts” — with their services.

Emergency stabilizat­ion services had the most disruption­s at 506 incidents, leading to 3,156 days of total disruption­s. Next was basic radiograph­y and laboratory services with 331 incidents, leading to 2,203 days of total disruption­s.

The data also showed that overall, across the province, last year, 455 disruption incidents were reported, followed by 399 incidents in 2022, 163 incidents in 2021, and 45 incidents in 2019 between August and December.

Between January and May of this year, there have been 122 disruption incidents.

The Herbert & District Integrated Healthcare Facility had the most total time with disruption­s, at 971 days, due to 59 total disruption incidents, the data showed.

Northwest Health Facility in Meadow

Lake had the greatest number of overall disruption­s, at 159 incidents, which led to 936 days of total disruption­s.

Moose Jaw’s Dr. F. H. Wigmore Regional Hospital was the seventh-most affected hospital or health-care centre in the province. Data shows that, during the past five years, it had 17 total disruption incidents that led to 303 days of total disruption­s.

The most disruption­s occurred in basic radiograph­y and laboratory services between Nov. 25, 2020, and June 29, 2021, with 216 total days of disruption­s, the data showed. Meanwhile, this area experience­d 231 total days of disruption­s during the past five years.

The second-most affected area was emergency stabilizat­ion services between July 11, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2020, with 51 total days of disruption­s.

Other areas affected included obstetrics care, bariatric services, CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and more.

NDP comments

“We see … certainly some significan­t disruption­s at the hospital there in Moose Jaw … so certainly concerning,” Jared Clarke, the NDP’s critic for rural and remote health, told MooseJawTo­day.com by phone.

One issue driving these disruption­s is the lack of health-care profession­als to staff buildings, he continued. During the last six years, there has been a 21-per-cent decline in people working in rural and remote places, from doctors to nurses to occupation­al

therapists.

Many profession­als have left the industry with those vacancies straining the system and leaving residents without services, he pointed out.

“I think these numbers really support the stories that we have heard from healthcare profession­als across the province — and patients … ,” Clarke added. “These numbers are really talking about health care not being there for Saskatchew­an people when they need it.” Province’s response

The province responded to the NDP’s criticisms in an email to MooseJawTo­day. com.

“Filling the vacant positions required to stabilize and strengthen health-care services is a high priority for our government,” the email said. “Thousands of vacant positions have been successful­ly filled since we put forward our Health Human Resources Action Plan in fall 2022, with significan­t results for rural and regional communitie­s.”

The province then listed seven communitie­s — including Moose Jaw — as examples where it had successful­ly hired nurses, care assistants and lab and scan technician­s during the past two years. Overall, it noted that it had recruited more than 1,700 health-care profession­als in rural and regional areas during that time.

“We now have over 1,000 more physicians practising in the province than when we were first given the honour of forming government in 2007, a 62-per-cent increase, which far outpaces the population growth rate of 23 per cent,” the province said.

“Our record is a stark contrast to the NDP, who closed 52 rural hospitals, and in their last five years in government, ran 173 physicians and 450 nurses out of the province.”