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<\/p>\n\u201cIt tells me that they\u2019re not putting the resources into the people that actually work in this province,\u201d said Zunti.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
A significant portion of the plan talked about expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners and pharmacists, as well the possibility of expansion for other professionals like optometrists and physical therapists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read the word nurse practitioner about 46 times and nothing to address everyone else that is working in this system,\u201d said Zunti.<\/p>\n
The province\u2019s plan talked about using third parties to design, build, own and operate long-term care homes in Estevan and Watson.<\/p>\n
Zunti is also frustrated that SEIU-West \u2013 which represents a number of health-care workers in the province, including LPNs \u2013 wasn\u2019t consulted when the plan was being created.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy phone number is always in service; they can always reach out to me, they all have my private cell number. I mean, there is no reason not to consult,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
The province\u2019s plan included using third parties to design, build, own, and operate long-term care homes in Estevan and Watson.\u00a0Zunti said moving long-term care into the private sphere is a way for the province to not take responsibility for people\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you take these services out of the public system, and you have someone making a profit off of them, something is going to suffer and that something that\u2019s going to suffer is the patient or resident and the staff that works there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another point in the plan was for the province to work with unions to strengthen workplace stability \u2013 Zunti said the government could start to do that by actually consulting with front-line workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no ideas that I would have come up with that are in this plan, and to add insult to injury, they have referred to Licensed Practical Nurses as Registered Practical Nurses. So that tells you the amount of respect that we are feeling right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
LPNs are referred to as RPNs mostly in Ontario.<\/p>\n
If the province has consulted SEIU-West, Zunti said there\u2019s a whole host of ideas that could have been offered up, like the need for real staffing initiatives, like increases to wages and improved staff-to-patient ratios, to attract more workers. She said if they want to get people health care in a timely manner, they need the workers and resources to do it.<\/p>\n
Province claims consultation contributed to plan<\/p>\n
On Monday, Saskatchewan Health Minister, Jeremy Cockrill, said Premier Scott Moe, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Seniors and Rural and Remote Health, Lori Carr, and himself have had opportunities to meet with healthcare stakeholders \u201cright across the sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether that is health care provides, whether that\u2019s folks like our educational institutions,\u201d Cockrill said.<\/p>\n
He said MLAs have a unique job, being \u201cface-to-face with patients each and every single day \u2013 whether it\u2019s in your constituency office \u2026 or even the grocery store.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cockrill said everyone is touched by healthcare at some point in their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that consultation \u2013 hearing stories from people, hearing feedback from patients right across the province about wanting better access, asking why can\u2019t certain professionals do certain things \u2013 it\u2019s that type of feedback that\u2019s really led to where we are today with this Patient\u2019s First Health Care Plan, and I think where we\u2019re going to go in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Expanding scope<\/p>\n
Nurse Practitioners and pharmacists were mentioned several times in the plan as areas where the province has already expanded the scope of practice, and where there are opportunities for more.<\/p>\n
The province appears to be particularly eyeing nurse practitioners as an untapped resource, planning to allow them to hire a health-care team around them and to have greater responsibilities in emergency rooms and long-term care.<\/p>\n
In a news release after the plan was unveiled, the Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners (SANP) said it\u2019s excited for the role nurse practitioners will continue playing in the future of the province\u2019s health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is inspiring to see the full potential and impact of NPs being supported by the province,\u201d wrote Toni Giraudier, SANP president, in the release.<\/p>\n
She said the part of the plan that is most exciting is the focus on collaborative, team-based care.<\/p>\n
The Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan also reacted positively to the announcement, applauding the plan in its own news release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank the Government of Saskatchewan and the Ministry of Health for taking an innovative approach and using all of the resources available to expand health care access across Saskatchewan,\u201d said CEO of the Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan, Michael Fougere, in the release.<\/p>\n
According to the association, more than 4,200 services are being offered across the province through the pilot project for pharmacists to assess and treat strep throat and ear infections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more work to be done, but this is an exciting step in addressing the province\u2019s health care access challenges,\u201d Fougere said.<\/p>\n
by Lisa Schick, CKOM News Staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt tells me that they\u2019re not putting the resources into the people that actually work in this province,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-531932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}