The opposition NDP says it is time for the government to fulfill a campaign commitment to address short-staffing in the healthcare system and to develop a committee to address this long-standing issue.

Standing in front of Pioneer Village on Monday, health critic Vicki Mowat says you can’t blame the pandemic for this.

“Saskatchewan health-care workers have been working day and night to protect us and our families.  That burden has been made unnecessarily greater due to understaffing across our healthcare system thanks to a government that appears to have no plan when it comes to a recruitment and retention strategy for healthcare.” Mowat said. ” The pandemic brought to light and exacerbated the problem that healthcare workers have been raising for years and that is there aren’t enough staff on the frontlines to provide for safe patient care.”

Mowat wants to know where the campaign promise about 300 continuing care aides that was made by the Premier is.  She says when we need more people providing healthcare, Scott Moe is dragging his feet.  She says it is time to get the politics out of healthcare and start listening to the experts on the ground

The NDP and health sector leaders are also calling for a Health Human Resources Roundtable to start addressing this problem, one that has existed for years.

“It’s exhausting and exasperating that after advocating for better staffing on the frontlines that we are fighting for this.” SEIU-West President Barb Cape said. “We have talked with former health ministers Dustin Duncan and Jim Reiter and we have talked with current minister Paul Merriman and Everett Hindley to take action now to address short staffing.”

The NDP says that roundtable would consist of members from the health and advanced education ministries along with health-sector unions and post-secondary training institutions to develop a comprehensive strategy to create and keep quality health sector jobs in Saskatchewan.