Patients suffering without hyperbaric chamber: NDP
Politicians, advocates urge province to reopen specialized medical facility
A Regina man says he never wanted to make his mother's illness a public issue, but is once again sharing her story as part of a call for the province to reopen the only hyperbaric chamber in Saskatchewan.
“I didn't want to ever even get to that point,” said Brayden Dutchak outside of Dr. F.H. Wigmore Regional
Hospital in Moose Jaw on Monday. “But here we are.”
Dutchak's mother, Tamara Heppner, is in remission after extensive chemotherapy and radiation therapy for Stage 3 cervical cancer but has been dealing with health complications from the treatments. Heppner has been travelling from Regina to Calgary for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
Neither the province nor the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) responded to requests for comment before deadline Monday, but Dutchak said a one-time exception is being made to help his mother receive treatment closer to home.
Four respiratory therapists are typically needed to operate the chamber, but Heppner is currently undergoing a 10-day round of HBOT treatments in Moose Jaw with just three. However, the chamber will remain closed to the public.
Dutchak was joined by official
Opposition Leader Carla Beck, rural and remote health critic Jared Clarke and International Association of Fire Fighters Local 553 president Taylor Enns at the hospital where the single hyperbaric chamber sits unused.
“Since 2019, services have closed at 53 hospitals across the province,” said Clarke, citing government data.
“These closures have been devastating to the local communities, but the hyperbaric chamber closure affects the entire province.”
The chamber has been collecting dust since it was closed in 2021. The SHA has said HBOT services in Moose Jaw were initially paused during the pandemic to redirect respiratory therapy resources to emergency, ICU and acute-care patient needs at the hospital.
Three years later and there are still too few respiratory therapists available to operate the chamber, the NDP said.
“They said this closure would be temporary, but it's been three years and people are tired of empty promises,” said Beck. “We need a proper recruitment and retention strategy, one that actually attracts and retains our healthcare workers so we can keep these life-saving services open in our communities.”
In the province's annual budget, money is allocated for various health-care recruitment and retention programs, but Beck says these are “empty promises” by the Sask. Party to get voters on their side in an election year.
Dutchak said there are over a dozen types of issues eligible for HBOT, but without enough respiratory therapists to operate the chamber, people like his mother are forced to go the distance for treatment or suffer.
“It is unacceptable in Saskatchewan.”
Before his mother went to get treatment in Calgary, Dutchak said he received a call from the health minister's office suggesting they get extended insurance in case Heppner needed to be airlifted to Edmonton. With the family's story making the rounds in the media, Dutchak said the chances of them getting extended insurance would be slim.
Those who have to cross provincial borders to get this type of treatment are out thousands of dollars in travel expenses, which the government says it won't reimburse, he added.
HBOT can be used to treat a multitude of ailments, including severe burns and cancer, as it promotes the formation of new blood vessels in damaged tissue through a process known as angiogenesis.
A fundraiser for the chamber was spearheaded by the Moose Jaw fire department.
The community raised $850,000 to fund its installation, with the department matching $50,000 of those dollars.
“We put in lots of time and money over the years for the chamber,” said Enns on Monday. “To hear that it hasn't been in use to its full extent since 2021 is disappointing, I think, to us and the people of Saskatchewan.”