By Sarah Rae

NDP discuss short staffing and Lighthouse at health care town hall

Oct 15, 2016 | 12:00 PM

Saskatchewan’s opposition health critic visited the Battlefords with hopes of bringing local concerns back to the Regina legislature.

Saskatoon Riversdale NDP MLA Danielle Chartier led a town hall-style discussion in the Battlefords Friday night at the Don Ross Centre to discuss the community’s issues with provincial healthcare.

Prince Albert Northcote MLA Nicole Rancourt and Regina Lakeview MLA Carla Beck also attended.

“Our first job is to make sure people in communities are being consulted,” Chartier said. “This isn’t something the government is doing. People feel that this hasn’t been a transparent process and that local voices aren’t being heard.”

Similar to other forums, short staffing at hospitals was the major concern according to Chartier.

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“In these forums one of the overarching themes has been around short staffing,” she said. “I was in La Ronge two days ago, there was a nurse who had worked a 24-hour shift. That’s not good for the nurse, it’s not good for the patients, of course that’s not good for the patients.”

Chartier said she’s heard all manner of stories, from patients wetting themselves because nobody can respond to assist them fast enough to not having bandages routinely changed or having to travel across the province for treatment.

The Lighthouse North Battleford was also a pressing issue raised by the discussion attendees.

Chartier said though the ministry of social services saves roughly $70 by rejected someone from the shelter, the money doesn’t stay in the bank.

If the rejected person has nowhere else to go, like in the Battlefords where the Lighthouse is the only option, that person often ends up in jail or the emergency room. She said these alternatives cost the government more money and isn’t an appropriate place for the homeless to stay.  

Chartier said the government needs to work out a proper funding model to ensure no one who needs a bed is turned away.

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.