Prince Albert Carlton NDP nominee Carolyn Brost Strom and NDP health critic Vicki Mowat blasted the Saskatchewan Party government on Monday for how it treats the provinces nurses.
Brost Strom served as a registered nurse for 19 years and said many nurses feel demoralized and want to leave the province. The comments come after Saskatchewan Health Minister Everett Hindley invited four unions to join a nursing task force.
“The Sask. Party has broken the healthcare system in the province and they cannot be trusted to repair it,” Brost Strom said during the press conference.
Brost Strom accused the government of not listening to nurses, many of which are ready to quit. In May, a Saskatchewan Union of Nurses survey reported 58 per cent of respondents had thought about leaving the profession in the past 12 months. More than 1,600 members completed the survey.
Brost Strom said nurses continue to deal with trauma and burnout, while patient care suffers. She said the NDP wants to be a part of the solution.
“We cannot continue to go on this way,” she said. “I’ll be very clear: nurses don’t want healthcare to be this way, and if given the chance, they want to be part of the solution. This means we need a real partnership with government to solve the problems we face with healthcare. If the government does not go forward with partners as nurses, and they continue to fail at taking nurses seriously, we can expect more healthcare workers to leave our province.”
On Sept. 24, the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) released a report showing 35 out of every 100 new Saskatchewan nurses were leaving the profession before turning 35. In 2022, MEI data shows 40 young Canadian nurses left the profession for every 100 who entered it.
Saskatchewan ranked fourth in Canada with 35.4 young nurses leaving for every 100 entering the field in 2022. That was four per cent lower than in 2013.
The MEI expects Canada to have a shortage of 117,600 nurses by 2030.
NDP health critic and Saskatoon Fairview MLA Vicki Mowat said the NDP has been causing for a nursing task force for two years. She said the recent Sask. Party invitation to form a nursing task force is a “complete 180” from the party’s previous position.
“This is just another empty promise,” Mowat said. “The Sask. Party ignored healthcare workers for years, only to show up, flowers in hand, days before they need the votes. The Sask. Party doesn’t care about listening to healthcatre workers. If they did, they would have struck a nursing taskforce two years ago instead of saying no. They are desperate.”
On Sept. 23, the NDP announced a $1.1 billion plan for additional healthcare spending if they form the next government. NDP leader Carla Beck has also promised to establish a nursing task force if elected.
The Prince Albert Daily Herald reached out to the Ministry of Health for a response, but did not hear back by press time.
In a statement posted on social media, the Saskatchewan Party accused the NDP of making “billions of dollars in election promises with no plan of how to pay for it.”
The statement said the NDP spending promises would lead to “higher taxes, larger deficits, and cancelling new schools and hospitals.”
