The Saskatchewan NDP is calling on the provincial government to hire more healthcare workers so the hyperbaric chamber at Moose Jaw’s Wigmore Hospital can operate at full-service levels, as it did before 2021.

The chamber, which provides oxygen therapy to cancer patients and burn victims, opened in 2015 following a $850,000 fundraising drive spearheaded by Moose Jaw firefighters. Opposition Leader Carla Beck says in 2021, the Sask. Party government closed the facility.

Premier Scott Moe says the facility isn’t closed, it is just experiencing a reduced service period.

Moe says the facility requires four respiratory therapists in order to operate for a full scope of hours, and currently only three have been secured. He adds that measures to hire a fourth therapist are currently underway, and once they are, full services will resume.

Minister of Rural and Remote Health Tim McLeod says there currently aren’t that many people requesting care at the facility.

“We are aware, through the SHA, that there are two patients in Saskatchewan seeking treatment at the hyperbaric chamber. One is currently receiving that treatment, and the other is meeting with their physician to build a treatment plan to receive treatment at the hyperbaric chamber,” McLeod explains.

Beck says the root cause of nearly all Saskatchewan healthcare issues is short staffing. She calls on Premier Moe to end the culture of burnout and disrespect that drives healthcare workers from the profession and the province.

“We are not about to take any lessons, Mr. Speaker, when it comes to Health Human Resource Action Plans from the members opposite, because their action plan was to fire nurses, fire physicians, and send our kids to Alberta because they closed their hospital,” Moe declared.

Since 2019, NDP report that emergency rooms, laboratories, operating theatres and other services have closed at 53 different hospitals and health centres across Saskatchewan.
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