Saskatoon’s family doctors are not currently taking on any new patients.
NDP Leader Carla Beck declared that the issue, as well as the overall health care system, is in crisis and that it needs to be handled as such during a press conference on Wednesday morning.
It is amazing, nevertheless, that not a single family doctor is taking on new patients in Saskatoon, our province’s largest city.
Vicki Mowat, a health critic for the NDP, claims that the government is hoarding $2 billion in unexpected income.
Not a single penny of this, according to Mowat, has gone toward improving our healthcare system. “We would want to see some actual investment that supports that when we see that they (the provincial government) have launched a health care plan about luring health care employees.”
“We observed over $118 million (spent) in British Columbia; they are almost five times the size, so we wouldn’t be requesting the same amount. According to Mowat, we anticipate it to be in the range of 20 to 30 million.
According to Beck, Saskatchewan has lost 82 family doctors in the past three years. She claims that a number of other jurisdictions have announced funds to increase access to and supply of family physicians.
They serve as Saskatchewan’s healthcare system’s skeleton, according to Mowat.
People who lack a family physician frequently visit our hospitals and emergency rooms, according to Mowat.
Our ERs and hospitals are overflowing, our healthcare professionals are going out of business, and people all around the province can’t get an appointment with a doctor, yet our health minister insists that everything is well with the system. Before it’s too late, this government needs to step forward with a strategy.
According to Mowat, the industry’s burnout rates are concerning. The health critic claims that keeping and luring doctors to Saskatchewan is the largest issue she has heard raised by those working in the field.
“You can’t keep drawing people in while still failing to offer desirable working conditions. Every industry, I believe, can relate to the necessity of giving both hiring and retention the same amount of attention.
A request for feedback from the Ministry of Health has not yet received a response.
Beck says the new urgent care facilities planned in Regina and Saskatoon are great, but don’t solve the entire issue.
The question of “who is going to staff them?” is one that we frequently hear. “That capital investment is vital, but it doesn’t function if we don’t have employees to service those buildings,” adds Beck.
The NDP demands “immediate financing” to solve the provincial shortfall of family doctors.
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