Sask. government contingency plan could redeploy provincial employees to healthcare system
The provincial government is working on a contingency plan to redeploy civil servants into the healthcare system, as Omicron continues to spread.
The workers would assist in areas understaffed due to COVID-19 illness. The province is looking for approximately 500 volunteers from the ministries.
“Part of that plan is to work with Saskatchewan’s Public Service Commission to identify potential staffing resources within the provincial government who could be redeployed to support health care services in non-medical roles, such as meal preparation, cleaning, and administrative duties,” the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) said in a statement.
During a previous wave last year, the province relied on a group of military personnel to help at hospitals. Others, such as firefighters took shifts at nursing homes.
The NDP Opposition feels the government is not being straight with the public.
“The premier has been out 48 hours ago talking about ‘hospitalizations due to COVID right now are not a big deal in Saskatchewan,’” Vicki Mowat, an NDP MLA said.
“At the same time we find out that government is redeploying 500 employees from government into the health care sector because of understaffing that exists and concerns about hospitalization growing.”
The province said no employees have been redeployed and no decision has been made on deployment.
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