NDP call for action to address hospital issues

The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party is once again calling for action to address issues surrounding Saskatchewan hospitals.

On Thursday, NDP Leader Ryan Meili and health critic Vicki Mowat met with media outside of St. Paul’s hospital to share new information they received from a freedom of information request.

“We know that this hospital needs over $90 million of repairs, over $120 million at RUH (Royal University Hospital) — that’s part of a half a billion dollar infrastructure deficit in health care facilities across the province,” said Meili.

“Some of the things that showed up at Royal University Hospital and this hospital were a lot of leaks and one of the stories that really stood out here at St. Paul’s is the floors in one of the offices are sloping so much that the staff was complaining about getting sore arms from having to hold on to their desks so that they didn’t roll away from them.”

According to Meili, the infrastructure deficit has been identified since 2013 but there still hasn’t been any meaningful work done to address it.

“We’ve known this for over six years and we’ve seen know real action yet and I really haven’t seen anything that suggests any measures this government is interested in taking are anywhere near proportional to the urgency of the need,” he said.

“The longer you wait the worse that problem gets. It’s time for this government to make those significant investments in infrastructure and repair these hospitals.”

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said they continue to work with the Saskatchewan Health Authority “to determine highest priority needs” of the health facilities in the province.

“Since 2007 (including the 2019/20 Budget), government has invested approximately $1.6 billion in major capital projects, building improvements, and equipment upgrades for our health system. Approximately $346 million of that went to health infrastructure maintenance,” said the statement.

According to an NDP media release, since 2015-16, investment in health infrastructure has dropped by 60 per cent resulting in “an estimated $3.3 billion in needed repairs.”

According to Derek Miller, SHA’s director of infrastructure management, that $3.3 billion figure stems from that 2013 assessment. He said it, “Reflects the deferred maintenance… accounting for the years between then and now” but doesn’t represent an actual cost of fixing all the problems.

“There would need to be a lot of planning to cost out all the different pieces of maintenance necessary,” he said.

“Our reality is we have aged infrastructure and with older buildings come maintenance requirements. We work really hard to make sure that we do apply the investment that we get from thew government on the most critical needs in order to make sure our facilities are safe and operational for Saskatchewan residents.”

In their statement, the ministry said many health care facilities have suffered from a lack of infrastructure investment but this is not out of the ordinary because, “Governments have to make difficult choices when allocating limited resources among many competing priorities.”

According to Miller, the SHA is working with the ministry to create a plan to figure out how to prioritize their maintenance projects “to make sure we have the right facilities and equipment to support all the services we do.”

Meili said he is yet to see any details from the governments plan and finds the lack of noticeable improvements “extremely frustrating.”

“They have been completely asleep at the wheel when it comes to allowing this to continue and get worse. Over six years that we’ve known about this and they’ve taken no significant action,” he said.

“We need to see the plan immediately and we are committing that starting in October as a new government we will invest significantly in addressing the health care infrastructure deficit in this province.”