Health-care system unhealthy for workers
It was more than just the body language of Saskatchewan Party government MLAS, but Shannon Orellbast says the body language was rather telling.
That body language was the first thing Orell-bast noticed after she was invited to the legislature last week by the NDP Opposition to tell her story about enduring a double mastectomy, and then 16 chemotherapy and 25 radiation sessions following an August 2022 diagnosis.
Before her concerns were raised in question period last week, Orell-bast said she was irked watching some Saskatchewan Party MLAS seem far more interested in filling their coffee cups and talking among themselves while 17 nursing graduates were acknowledged in introductions.
Ignoring those who represent the future of health care in Saskatchewan seems all too emblematic of the many wrong messages coming from government right now, she said.
“People need to listen to the health-care workers,” an emotional Orell-bast told reporters. “Listening means receiving the message — not heckling while you are receiving the message ...
“For me, as a breast-cancer patient, listening is important — listening to my journey. Listening to what I need
— not telling me that we're short-staffed. You are invalidating my experience.
“You are invalidating the experiences of health-care employees. You need to listen to them. They're not OK. Health-care employees are not well — especially after COVID.”
Orell-bast has long navigated Saskatchewan's health system as a social worker advocate for patients, but it was her own breast cancer reality that drove home how convoluted that journey can be.
“I was met with a lot of barriers doing it for myself,” said Orell-bast, explaining that getting simple diagnostic tests were repeatedly met with the reality of staff shortages preventing them from happening.
“I was actually concerned at one point: `Is the system going to kill me?' ” she said.
However, the barriers she had to traverse really had nothing to do with the actual people that Orell-bast says are now keeping a dilapidated system from collapsing.
“Those workers, they provide my care,” she said. “So if they are not well ... guess what? They are not there.
“You can put in infrastructure. You can put in machines. You can put in as many as you want, but you have to have (people) to operate these (machines).”
It's great to have a breast assessment centre in Regina, “but that breast assessment centre needs to be staffed and you need to maintain that staff,” the social worker said. “Where's the breast-trained radiologist? The lack of (such) resources is far-reaching.”
Speaking to reporters immediately after question period, Health Minister Everett Hindley noted Orell-bast has “done an excellent job of being able to communicate her personal circumstances” and “what she's experienced from health-care providers.”
Such engagements do help government to understand what's working or not working, Hindley said, adding he appreciates the “honesty of her feedback” and the “transparency.”
As far as ministers go, Hindley has one of the better reputations for listening.
But this a Saskatchewan
Party government that has a deteriorating relationship for failing to listen to those in its public sector who are on the front line of service delivery.
Consider the heated battle with striking Saskatchewan teachers who have repeatedly complained their message about classroom complexity and composition is similarly being dismissed.
The government position has been that only elected officials — not front-line workers — have the right or authority to be making such decisions in their workplace. Really? When the next cabinet minister hops aboard a flight for the next foreign junket, will they take a passenger vote on who gets to fly the plane?
When she returns to work, Orell-bast said it is essential she is healthy enough to do so — not only for herself, but also for the people she serves.
“We need to look after our people because we are not going to keep (them),” she said. “If we are not going to keep them, they are not going (to be able) to care for us. Saskatchewan needs to be better.”