Legislative Report, 3 June, 2005

Earlier this week, an 84-year-old war veteran with a brain bleed waited 52 hours in the Royal University Hospital emergency room before he was admitted into neurosurgery.

Since I’ve become health critic for the Saskatchewan Party caucus, I have had calls from every corner the province with stories of how our healthcare system is failing the people it is meant to serve.

Again and again we ask the premier, how many lives need to be put in danger or lost before this government realizes the plan they have put in place for our hospitals just isn’t working. Although this is an extreme case, the waiting time in emergency rooms throughout the province is unacceptably long. We do not have the front-line workers needed to keep enough beds open. The shortage of beds in regular hospital wards causes a backlog in the emergency room and even more strain on emergency staff.

This is not the failure of healthcare workers. They do an extraordinary job under extremely difficult working conditions. The failure for this gentleman and for others needing emergency treatment, is the head in the sand attitude of this government, which either does not see or chooses not to see that the system they say is working so well, is not.

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL AT 1-877-337-3366 OR 771-2733 OR EMAIL ME AT mcmorris.mla@sasktel.net

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