Health-care workers ‘cautiously optimistic’ after meeting with ministers

Health-care workers across Saskatchewan have been sounding the alarm about the health-care system for quite some time.

Some of those workers — who are members of SEIU-West — recently met with the province’s health-care ministers.

They met with the newly appointed Health Minister, Jeremy Cockrill and Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr.

Barbara Cape, SEIU-West President, said members left the meeting feeling “cautiously optimistic.”

“Both ministers are really interested in the joint nursing team task force, and that was really good news for us to hear because it brings together a broader group of people who actually have the front-line expertise,” she said.

“The ministers are brand new to their portfolios, so it’s good to get an opportunity to meet with them, introduce ourselves and talk about how we can work together on some of these problems.”

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The joint nursing team task force is a top priority for these health-care workers.

“Whether it’s a registered nurse or a licensed practical nurse, or a registered psychiatric nurse or a continuing care assistant, we want to get those front-line professionals into a room to start talking about how do we work as a cohesive team,” Cape said.

It also brought forward concerns of less turf protection and more collaboration between workers, an increase in the number of full-time jobs, improving recruitment and retention, improving wages and getting the ministers and SHA leadership to regularly visit the facilities.

“We need to see an investment within the health care system towards good quality, permanent jobs, but also wages that keep up with the cost of living, because we don’t want to lose any more staff to Alberta or Manitoba,” she said.

“We want to grow, recruit and retain our good quality professionals right here in the province, and so part of that is investing in front-line workers, and that needs to happen now.”

She also wants to see a more cohesive directive from the Saskatchewan Health Authority for all health-care workers across the province. She says the discrepancies in rules cause confusion, saying rules for a licensed practical nurse in Saskatoon might be different from one working in Moose Jaw or Swift Current for example.

Cape said time is running out to talk about the issues concerning health-care workers and action needs to be taken now – especially in terms of the nursing team task force.

“It can’t be in the works for long. We can’t sit around and talk a good game about improving health care and not actually improve health care,” she said.

“This is a quick and easy way for us to start making improvements now that patients, clients, residents and the staff who provide that care can actually start seeing some improvements and some hope in their workplaces.”

Cape herself is cautiously optimistic about the future of health care in Saskatchewan.

“Health care is a huge political football, I’m under no illusions that way, but health care has to get back to being about care,” she said.

She said if political leaders and health-care workers can’t find a way to work together to make improvements the “chaos and the crisis” in the health care system will continue.