Saskatchewan’s New Democratic Party called for an independent investigation of the province’s long-term care system Friday.
NDP health critic Vicki Mowat said the Saskatchewan Party wants to ignore the realities of long-term care that are denying too many seniors the care they deserve.
“Long-term care workers, families and seniors are all raising the alarm,” said Mowat.
“We need an independent investigation of the long-standing issues plaguing our long-term care system, and we are calling on the government to ask the ombudsman to initiate the investigation,” she added.
According to the NDP, the provincial ombudsman has investigated long-term care before and they hope getting an OK for the investigation will provide a “complete picture” of the situation in Saskatchewan.
The NDP pointed to a review of the CEO Tour report released by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU-West), which interviewed frontline health workers and others exposed to understaffing beyond what was captured in the report as evidence an independent investigation is needed.
The president of SEIU-West, Barbara Cape, shared a letter sent to Premier Scott Moe which said workers on the front lines “are deeply troubled and outraged by your government’s recent efforts to reassure Saskatchewan people that there are no systemic staffing or care quality issues in the province’s long-term care sector.”
The letter, sent to the premier on June 10, also said the process that generates the CEO Tour Report has become highly flawed.
“The result is a report that seriously underrepresents the prevalence and severity of the issues facing the long-term care sector. Issues SEIU-West has been drawing your government’s attention to for years,” said Cape in the letter.
Cape’s letter included a long list of issues not in the report including staffing shortages across many facilities, vacant positions and staffing challenges that pose risks to access rural health care.
“If you truly believe that there are no systemic staffing issues in long-term care in Saskatchewan, we invite you to prove it,” said Cape.
