The Canadian Medical Association president said Saskatchewan is at a crisis point and must institute circuit breakers and ask for more help.
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A national organization representing Canada’s doctors says it’s ‘time to stop asking nicely’ for additional measures to lift the heavy burden COVID-19 is putting on Saskatchewan’s health system.
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Dr. Katharine Smart, a physician in Whitehorse and president of the Canadian Medical Association, called on the Saskatchewan government to immediately institute gathering limits, make vaccination mandatory in healthcare settings and seek help from other jurisdictions. She said the provincial government needs to account for what she views as continued inaction.
“It’s, I think, really come to a crisis point,” she said. “Yesterday we saw Dr. Shahab breaking down with despair over, he used the word, pleading with the population to listen to him. We’re not seeing his recommendations backed up by any actual political measures that support him.”
Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, became emotional while describing grim modelling of the province’s future. Smart said Saskatchewan needs to seriously limit the amount of people who can gather to avoid the outcomes in that modelling, which suggests pressures in hospitals are unlikely to fully subside this year even under current trends .
“We’re hearing daily from physicians in Saskatchewan who are desperate to be able to provide care to patients,” Smart explained in an interview.
Saskatchewan has revealed plans to send six ICU patients to Ontario for care . Three had been sent as of Wednesday. The province is also requesting assistance from Ottawa. But doctors have said much more is needed.
In Smart’s view, Saskatchewan has not moved quickly enough to request help from outside its borders, where the COVID-19 situation is much less severe.
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“I think it’s very clear they have not been,” she said. “The federal government’s been willing to offer help to Saskatchewan now for weeks. And as we heard in the news this week, they have resisted that they were looking to the United States, as opposed to accepting that help that was here in country.”
The Saskatchewan NDP repeated its longstanding call for gathering limits on Thursday, and urged the government to release Shahab’s recommendations to make clear whether it is following his advice.
“Throughout the first and second waves, the province pointed to Dr. Shahab as the guiding light for how best to get Saskatchewan through this pandemic. Now, at the most critical juncture in the fight, this government is flat out ignoring his advice,” said NDP health critic Vicki Mowat.
In a release, Smart had said it’s time to stop asking nicely for action. Smart told the Leader-Post that means keeping the pressure on the government to demand measures that are based on science.
“The decisions they’re making right now are not based on science,” said Smart. “They are not based on any medical recommendations, and that they are endangering their citizens with their current approach, and we will continue to call that out.”
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'Time to stop asking nicely' for restrictions in Sask., says doctors group - Regina Leader-Post
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