President's Message
The State of "Health Care" in Saskatchewan
The days are getting longer, and spring is definitely in the air. With the winds of spring, and the end of winter, come the traditional annual activities which translate into a new and refreshed year. Some of these traditions include the Budget speech, by the Finance Minister, when the Government presents a statement of expected income and expenditures for the year.
This year, Government passed a budget which included a 3.5% increase in budget for the health regions. At the same time, (as of March 30th – end of the 2011-2012 budget year) more than 200 HSAS positions, across Saskatchewan’s health regions, remained vacant. The result of these vacant positions means reduced, limited, or no services for residents of Saskatchewan and generally, a “slow down” in the delivery of health care services in this province. This is not acceptable.
For decades, we have prided ourselves on the quality of our health care in Saskatchewan. Can we still do that? Vacancies, some as long as five years exist for many of our professions such as psychologists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, social workers, audiologists, prosthetists, as well as many other of our professional groups.
What could this mean to the individual citizen of Saskatchewan? Here’s an example. There are areas in the province where little to no service exists for individuals in need of occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, or audiology. These glaring gaps affect adults in rural areas who suffer from neurological conditions, speech disorders such as stuttering, or where a child may have to wait up to a year for a hearing evaluation because there are not enough audiologists working in our health regions. These are just a few stories which describe the state of “health care” in Saskatchewan. If it is not acceptable to wait for long periods of time for surgeries, why is it considered acceptable to have long periods of waiting for services just described, or to have large areas in this province with no service? While the population increases , the stress on health care is felt by the public we serve.
The goal of HSAS is to challenge health regions to be accountable and transparent about the full extent of the vacant positions, to challenge those regions to fill these vacant positions and to provide services where they are needed but do not currently exist. If our health regions continue to state that Saskatchewan’s patients and families are to be considered ‘first’, then their actions need to reflect that belief.
This spring, we will be travelling to a number of communities in Saskatchewan to provide you, a valuable HSAS professional, an opportunity to tell us your “health care” story. We look forward to meeting with you and working together as specialized health care professionals, to improve our valued, and much needed “health care services” across this province. Watch for more information, soon to arrive in your mailbox.