For the second time this week, NDP Leader Ryan Meili was joined in the Saskatchewan Legislature by a resident who had a health service cancelled.
22-year-old Jessie Eide had her surgery cancelled earlier this year, just four days after she booked it.
Eide has been dealing with varicose veins and her surgeon believes she is possibly suffering from compartment syndrome.
Eide says that she feels ignored.
“I feel neglected. I don’t feel like the healthcare system has really addressed any of my issues.”
Eide said things have only gotten worse since the surgery has been cancelled.
“(Varicose veins) causes weakness in my legs, a lot of pressure buildup — which hurts — I don’t sleep well at night,” Eide said. “I just struggle to function on a daily basis.”
Health Minister Paul Merriman said that he had heard plenty of situations just like Eide’s.
“We had to make some very challenging, difficult decisions, and as I said, I didn’t want to make those decisions,” Merriman said. “But we had to because of the people that were mostly unvaccinated. I was informed last week that there was no critical surgeries that were paused or cancelled last week.”
Merriman added he is going to get his staff to follow up with Edie. He says the Saskatchewan Health Authority is finally being to pick things up when it comes to surgical wait times.