Citizens of Duck Lake and surrounding areas gathered at the legislature today to raise concerns over a lack of doctors in their region.

NDP Healthcare Critic Matt Love says the staffing shortage is preventing the health centre from being able to fill patient beds.

“There are more beds empty today in Duck Luck than in all of the Northeast region combined. The Sask. Party has broken our healthcare system, and they are not up to the task of fixing it,” Love accused. There are eight empty beds in Duck Lake.

Sask. Party Minister for Rural and Remote Health Tim McLeod says that accusation is rich coming from the Opposition, as the NDP closed 52 hospitals during their reign.

Love questioned why no progress has been made in the recruitment division in over two years, to which McLeod stated that the Health and Human Resources Action plan was only released in September in 2022.

McLeod says the Health Human Resources action plan is the most ambitious in the country, and is activley recruiting physicians to fill the vacencies in communities such as Duck Lake.

NDP Leader Carla Beck says Sask. Party talk is becoming tiring for those who don’t have access to healthcare.

“News flash for the minister, they’re not here to say how well those plans are working. Saskatchewan people should be able to get the care that they need when and where they need it,” Beck added.

McLeod retorted that the Sask. Party has 1000 more physicians working in Saskatchewan than there were under the NDP.