Health care deteriorates

Brad Wall has shown his true priorities. He is obsessed with big oil and influenced by the climate-change denying Koch brothers.

When comparing public funding for hospitals as a percentage of GDP in 2014, Saskatchewan ranked dead last at 2.37 per cent, according to the National Health Expenditures Database 2014. Obviously, Wall has not been spending our oil boom money to improve hospital services. Instead, massive amounts of health-care dollars are being funnelled into highly paid administrators, lean staff and consultants.

According to information from the Ministry of Health, there are approximately 3,000 acute care beds staffed and in operation as of March 31, 2015. That is approximately 2.65 beds per 1,000. When the Sask. Party was first elected the ratio was 3.4 beds per 1,000.

All three health regions that serve my area have fewer beds than the current provincial average and fewer beds now than when Wall was first elected. The 2014-15 annual report for Prince Albert Parkland Health Region has 150 staffed beds or approximately 1.84 per 1,000. Prairie North has 181 staffed beds or 1.75 per 1,000. Saskatoon has 826 beds, or 2.41 per 1,000.

Health care isn’t just about numbers or beds. It’s also about timely access to services, individual experience and affordable ambulance service. We need to feel safe and cared for in our hospitals and nursing homes. We need to provide our health-care staff with the tools and resources to do their jobs.

Maybe the bad old days are yet to come — a repeat of the Devine 1980s. Evelyn Johnson, Spiritwood