REGINA - The new Minister of Health in Saskatchewan is counting on his former experience as Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors, and Rural and Remote Health in his new role in cabinet.
Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley moves to Health, taking over for Paul Merriman who now moves to Corrections Policing and Public Safety. His former role will now be filled by Tim McLeod, MLA for Moose Jaw North.
Hindley told reporters he had been “fortunate” to be in his former role and to work closely with Minister Merriman, and previous Ministers before that.
“It’s an important part of government, and I think we had a good working relationship before. I really had the chance to get out and speak to a lot of folks, and take the rural perspective of that portfolio very seriously — getting the opportunity to travel across Saskatchewan and tour facilities, meet with frontline health workers, meet with community leaders, bring that voice back to the table at the cabinet table and the caucus table alongside with our MLAs.
“I think that’s helped get us to where we’re at today. We’ve made significant advancements in the area of health care, but we have some challenges to address when it comes to continuing to invest in capital and facilities, but also just as important if not more importantly, in the health resources as well —- to make sure that we have the staff that we need to be able to run these facilities and improve health care for the people in Saskatchewan.”
The indication from Hindley is they plan to build on the work that they had already done. He pointed to last year’s launch of the Health Human Resources Action Plan to train, incentivize, retain and recruit workers to the sector in the province.
“We would argue it's one of the most aggressive resource action plans in the country right now. We’ve see some benefits as a result of that in terms of new permanent full-time positions that have been created and healthcare workers that have been recruited to those positions. It’s led to the end of some of the temporary service disruptions, but we want to make sure that we end all of those, so there is that work that needs to continue. There is a high demand for healthcare workers right across this country. That includes in Saskatchewan, so it’s very competitive, and that’s a need that we need to continue to build upon.”
For the future Hindley spoke of actively looking at where to build upon what they’ve already done and “new and creative ways to continue to address that” going forward.
Hindley also spoke of building on the specialists in the province. “It’s not just nurses and care aides, but it’s also things like anaesthesiologists and paediatric gastroenterologists.”
He acknowledged some of the challenges the province has had in attracting and keeping those specialists in the past.
“It is very difficult, and that’s why it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we’re looking at each and every opportunity we have, again not just to recruit people, but to train those closer to home and hopefully be able to train people born and raised in Saskatchewan who I would argue probably have a better chance of staying here longer.”
When asked whether “bad press” from some controversial policies the government has put out, like the recently-announced education policy on parental consent, might create problems in attracting healthcare professionals, Hindley instead pointed to a number of advantages the province had.
“We’ve created a number of new incentives. We want to make sure that we have competitive remuneration package is for people who work in healthcare. We’re working very aggressively on a new payment model,” Hindley said.
Hindley added something else they were able to offer in Saskatchewan is “an important work-life balance for health care workers. I think we have a lot to sell here in Saskatchewan.”
The new Minister of Health was also asked about reports that the child and psych unit at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert had been closed for a third time. Opposition Leader Carla Beck and the NDP's Prince Albert Northcote candidate Nicole Rancourt were in Prince Albert raising the issue Tuesday.
Hindley acknowledged it was a concern for him, saying they had been working on this issue “for a period of months, working to recruit child psychiatrists to Prince Albert.”
“There has been some positive developments in the past number of weeks, I believe, in terms of trying to recruit some locum coverage there, but also providing some initial funding to the SHA so they can hire more child psychiatrists in Prince Albert, not just P.A. but other parts of our province as well. That is a priority for us for the people of Prince Albert and surrounding area, and certainly a vast chunk of the population of Northern Saskatchewan. So we’ve tasked our officials and the SHA to do everything they can to fill those vacancies as uickly as possible.”
