The town of Ituna is fighting for better accessibility to healthcare after budget cuts limited the availability of lab services for local residents.
Services like x-rays and lab work used to be offered five days a week. But, it has been cut back to three days a week in October.
On Monday, NDP health critic Danielle Chartier visited the town to listen to concerns in the area.
“The community actually put together a petition that has hundreds of signatures on it,” she told CTV News. “They know that the cutting of lab hours impacts people in their community and will ultimately have an impact on people’s health and the health of the community.”
Ituna residents have been fighting back against the cuts since last year. They say there is still enough demand to have that lab open five days each week.
“We showed that we do have the statistics to prove that we are that, plus more,” said Nancy Deleurme, a councillor in the town.
Right now, the lab is only open Monday to Wednesday, leaving a long gap without services available.
“There are no lab services Thursday and Friday – nothing until Monday,” Deleurme said. “So when a doctor orders lab work on Wednesday, you can’t get that done until Monday unless you decide to go to another facility in another town.”
The closest town is Melville.
Greg Ottenbreit, minister of rural and remote health, said the initial cuts were made to maintain the sustainability in the health sector. The cuts were made after looking at numbers based on utilization of the facility.
“Based on those numbers, the decision was made to go to three days a week,” Ottenbreit said Monday. “Again, hearing the concerns of the community, we decided to maybe implement one more day a week to increase the services.”
The town remains hopeful it will one day move back to five days a week for lab service.
Based on a report by CTV Yorkton's Stefanie Davis
