The New Democrats are concerned with process the government underwent in 2014 that saw the removal of supplies from a pandemic supply room in Regina, including around 166,000 N-95 respirator masks.
A Freedom of Information request from the Saskatchewan NDP indicates the government paid Lean consultants from the U.S. to help lead a “spring cleanup” of a pandemic room at the Regina General Hospital with a goal of reducing inventory by fifty per cent.
Health Critic Vicki Mowat said it’s unclear how many of those items were replaced, but the opposition party has heard about difficulties accessing PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been hearing from so many frontline healthcare workers that are saying there was a shortage,” explained Mowat. “The SHA’s own communication talked about shortages with things like swabs.”
The FOI shows 300,000 items out of 588,000 were disposed of including the masks. The NDP said it’s unclear how many of those items were replaced.
Before (top) and after (bottom) photos show the pandemic room at the Regina General Hospital during the supply purge by Lean consultants. (Photos supplied by Saskatchewan NDP)
She believes the government owes an apology to health care workers put at risk by PPE shortages.
“We’re hearing about folks that have to limit their mask use or have masks locked up,” she added. “You can easily put two and two together and realize that throwing out 166,000 masks and not having the masks available hurt us with our pandemic response.”
Health Minister Jim Reiter said following Thursday’s question period that officials are adjusting plans to ensure pandemic supplies are moved into the mainstream and are replaced when they expire.
“We have to remember too that they didn’t expire six years ago or were immediately disposed of. My understanding is when they were disposed of, they had expired sometime before that,” mentioned the health minister.
“I’m not sure when they were purchased or what the expiry date was on them.”
