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Rural hospital fights continue

More than two decades after the bitter hospital closure fights in rural Saskatchewan, the battle is still happening. And what’s even stranger is that some rural folks seem to now be battling a very rural-based Saskatchewan Party government.

More than two decades after the bitter hospital closure fights in rural Saskatchewan, the battle is still happening.

And what’s even stranger is that some rural folks seem to now be battling a very rural-based Saskatchewan Party government.

This is certainly what residents of Craik have been doing in their battle to keep both their doctor and hospital services.

About 70 Craik residents showed up for the opening day of the spring sitting to send a very loud message regarding the possible loss of their doctor, which they feel is an attempt by the Five Hills Health Region to force the closure of their hospital facility.

Again, this seems an odd fight to be seeing, especially given the rhetoric from the Five Hills about wanting to work with the community and what we’ve heard from this Sask. Party government about the need to attract doctors to rural and remote locations.

But the boisterous protesters from Craik, Central Butte and as far away as Coronach were not buying the government’s and health region’s rhetoric. Really, their anger was all too reminiscent of those 1993 rallies after the closure/conversion of 52 rural hospitals in the name of cost cutting and balancing the budget.

In fact, sporting signs calling on the government to "Do the Right Thing" and "Stop Rural Health Erosion," it was almost as if we had gone back 22 years in time.

"We just have to have health care restored back in rural Saskatchewan," Craik Rural Municipality Reeve Hilton Spencer told the crowd while carrying a sign saying, "Leaned too Hard?" The reference was to the Sask. Party government’s much-prized Lean efficiency program.

"This isn't just a Craik issue. It's a rural Saskatchewan issue," added David Ashdown, another Craik resident who also expressed his town’s frustration over the Five Hills Health Region and its unwillingness to listen.

The specific nature of this fight might suggest it’s just a Craik issue.

Residents noted the eagerness of Five Hills to force their doctor to sign a contract that would mean relocating to Davidson where services can be more easily consolidated.

Inside the legislature that day, Premier Brad Wall promised that Craik would maintain four-day-a-week doctor services and a nurse practitioner five days a week. But that’s well short of the goal of the town to keep their doctor and keep providing emergency medical services.

Prior to the legislature rally, Spencer wrote a letter to Rural and Remote Health Minister Greg Ottenbreit in January accusing Five Hills of wanting "to get rid of the doctor, lab and emergency” and openly questioning the government’s commitment to rural hospitals.

Admittedly, the notion of one single doctor in Craik providing redundant emergency medical services to Davidson 30 km away does seem questionable. For the community to demand EMS under these circumstances does seem to be over-reaching.

But having witnessed the demise of hospitals in other communities, one gets why Craik residents are not only fighting to keep their doctor but fighting to keep every conceivable service to keep their medical facility viable.

So in that sense, it’s similar to the fights we continue to see all across rural Saskatchewan.

Even the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities passed resolutions last year calling on government to change to the regional health authority board structure so that rural Saskatchewan could have adequate representation on boards and for regional authorities “to work with rural Saskatchewan to best address health care needs.”

And some communities are having better success than others.

Mere days after the Craik rally at the legislature, Radville held the official opening of its new hospital/nursing home facility that would be envied most anywhere.

But in rural Saskatchewan, where there continue to be winners and losers in battles to keep doctors and hospitals, this old fight has not gone away.