Shown, left to right, Kendal Carlberg, MLA Vicki Mowat and MLA Jennifer Bowes outside Meadow Lake Hospital on Thursday. (submitted photo/Saskatchewan NDP)

By battlefordsNOW staff

Woman gives birth on side of road

NDP raise concerns about shortages impacting healthcare in Meadow Lake

Sep 1, 2022 | 6:53 PM

The Saskatchewan NDP is raising concerns about access to rural healthcare after a woman in labour was turned away from the Meadow Lake Hospital last year due to apparent staffing shortages.

The release said Kendal Carlberg was then forced to travel 187 km to Lloydminster to deliver her baby. However, she ended up giving birth on the side of the road with the help of her partner and a paramedic, according to the report.

The NDP say the hospital has been subject to ongoing disruptions, including to obstetrical care, due to physician and nurse shortages. They add it is not clear whether obstetrical care is currently being provided at the hospital.

The report noted recently that as of August 2022, labouring patients were being sent to Lloydminster or North Battleford for care.

On Thursday, the NDP’s status of women critic Jennifer Bowes and health critic Vicki Mowat called on the provincial government to “immediately address chronic disruptions to vital mother-baby services across Saskatchewan.”

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“In the last year alone, labouring mothers have been turned away from hospitals in Yorkton, Swift Current, Estevan and Meadow Lake and forced to drive hours to deliver because of disruptions to obstetric and anesthetic services,” Bowes said. “This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous for both mother and baby. The Sask. Party has ignored and neglected women’s maternal and sexual health issues for far too long.”

Bowes and Mowat took part in a press conference with Kendal Carlberg outside the Meadow Lake Hospital as Carlberg related her traumatic experience delivering her child in March of 2021.

It was noted the Meadow Lake Hospital provides services to the community and surrounding Indigenous and northern communities.

“The Saskatchewan Government needs to address the systemic collapse of the healthcare system,” Carlberg said. “Our professionals are overworked and our people are
under-serviced. This crisis is especially pronounced in our northern and rural communities.”

Mowat said Carlberg’s concerns address an important issue in the province.

“Kendal is just one of many women who have been affected by chronic disruptions to obstetrical and anesthesia care across Saskatchewan,” she said. “Saskatchewan has a terrible record for retaining OB’s [obstetricians] and anesthesiologists – 20 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively. Just as bad, we have a government that lacks any curiosity to get to the bottom of why that is.”

Mowat added the Health Minister hasn’t been present at a public press conference since May, as a concern.

“Enough is enough. Summer’s over, and it’s time to come back to work,” Mowat said.

The province did not immediately respond with comment when contacted by meadowlakeNOW.

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW