NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat discussed the Sask. Party government鈥檚 failure to address long-standing staffing issues, potentially delaying expanded COVID-19 testing as schools reopen. Mowat said the government should ensure capacity is in place to meet an expected surge in demand.
She also said the government should begin random testing in places vulnerable to outbreak, such as schools, long-term care homes and homeless shelters.聽聽
鈥淔ast access to COVID-19 testing is essential to safely sending kids and teachers back to school, but we鈥檝e consistently been testing at below half of our advertised capacity,鈥� Mowat underlined. 鈥淪ix months into the pandemic, the Sask. Party is still scrambling to address the shortage, even as they refuse to bargain fairly with existing lab techs, who have been without a contract for nearly three and a half years. We need a government that takes public health seriously and puts people first.鈥澛�
Saskatchewan is lagging far behind the rest of the country in testing, at less than 70 per cent of the Canadian average. People are still waiting multiple days between requesting a test and getting results. Mowat emphasized bottlenecks in testing could make outbreaks worse this autumn.聽
Mowat pointed to a Saskatchewan Society of Medical Laboratory Technologists 2019聽聽showing the number of lab techs in the province had fallen since 2014, impacting rural health care in particular.
A shortage of Combined Laboratory and X-Ray Technicians (CLXT) in the province frequently led to emergency room closures in rural areas, including in Broadview late last year and Leader this summer.聽
鈥淭he Sask. Party is letting people down and promising austerity, which means cuts to public health workers like lab techs that we will need as we continue to grapple with the pandemic,鈥� Mowat said.
鈥淲hat Saskatchewan families need is a government that will make the crucial investments that we need now to keep our schools and our communities safe.鈥�
