The NDP rolled out cases in which expectant mothers have been recently turned away from hospitals in Yorkton, Swift Current and Estevan and forced to drive hours to deliver because of disruptions to obstetric and anesthetic services.

N-D-P leader Carla Beck and Health Critic Vicki Mowat called on the Provincial Government to immediately address, what they called, chronic disruptions to vital mother-child services across Saskatchewan.

Beck and Mowat pointed out that mother-child services just re-opened in Meadow Lake (pictured) after the N-D-P obtained a closure notice that was not published on the closure directory of the S-H-A website but instead circulated in a local physicians Facebook group.

Beck called the situation “absurd” and “unacceptable” that mothers in labour are forced to drive from town to town with no assurance that a bed will be available to them. Mowat added, “the Sask Party Government’s retention rate for O-Bs and anesthsiologists is appalling – 20% and 50% – respectively.