Is health care in rural Saskatchewan staring down a crisis situation?

 

Saskatchewan NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter thinks so.  He's calling on the provincial government to address the growing lack of doctors, longer surgical wait times and lack of funding going to rural long term care facilities.

 

He says "The Minister of Health and the Premier simply aren't facilitating and providing the leaderships needed on getting more doctors into rural Saskatchewan and, on the funding side, the promises made to fund home care and rural long-term care homes simply isn't coming through to the local levels.


"When you make a promise, which Brad Wall did in rural Saskatchewan, that in breaking that trust and breaking that promise, this is very, very detrimental to rural health, and we think he should live up to his promise."  Lingenfelter adds, if he was elected, he would make the rural health system better than it was under the previous administration.

Lingenfelter feels that patients need to be put first by the government, and funding needs to be provided to rural Saskatchewan.