Saskatchewan NDP looks for ‘big, bold’ solution to health-care problems

Problems in Saskatchewan health care have been a major focus for the Sask. NDP for the last number of years – when the legislature is sitting, not a week seems to go by without the Opposition bringing a heartbreaking or frustrating story of someone’s experience in the system. But as of Monday, the party widened its focus to look for solutions.

Meara Conway, the NDP’s health critic, said the health-care system in the province is in crisis – people are waiting too long for care, and care isn’t there when they need it. She called the Saskatchewan Health Authority bloated, unco-ordinated and more focused on hiding problems than fixing them.

On Monday, the NDP launched a new consultation project, which Conway said is focused on how to solve the problems they’ve been hearing about. It includes a new website, meetings with stakeholders and visits to communities across the province.

“We have the website. This week, we will be sending out solicitation letters to all major stakeholders in health care and meeting with them one on one. We will be going into communities. We will be touring facilities. We will be banging down every door to talk to people about their experience of health care – rural and urban alike,” explained Conway.

Jared Clarke, the NDP’s rural and remote health critic, joined Conway for the announcement. He said the party gets calls and messages into its office on a daily basis about what’s not working in health care.

“There’s a real appetite to come up with some big, bold ideas on how we can turn this around and make sure that health care is there for people when they need it,” he said.

Since before the provincial election, the NDP has been doing similar work – going out to communities and employee groups to talk about health care.

“Often the meetings shift to what’s wrong in health care, what’s the crisis, what’s the recent chaotic experience … I think we’ve been doing a very good job of prosecuting those problems. But what we are hearing from people is, they are wanting to know what we’re proposing in terms of an alternative,” said Conway.

She said the party doesn’t want to go into the process with any preconceived notions about what they’ll hear, and Conway said everything is on the table.

The consultation process will run for at least six months, and after that Conway said the party will publish the feedback, and then hopes to distill it down into a plan which the NDP will potentially run on in the next provincial election.