Lil Sabiston fears that health reform will result in fewer services in rural Saskatchewan and fewer jobs for rural women.
She told the province’s standing committee on health care last week that women have to be included in making decisions about policy.
“We are important,” said the Kelliher area farmer and board member of the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence.
The centre is one of five across Canada funding research and providing advice to make the health system more responsive to women’s needs.
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Sabiston said she is most concerned about losing diagnostic services in rural areas.
“We need the doctors and unless we have diagnostic services in the local areas, we will not have the doctors stay there,” she said.
“I know there’s less of us out there because of the crisis that we’re going through, but we’re still important. We still plan on living out there and we need the services.”
Sabiston later told reporters that rural people have more services now than they did before the last round of health reform in the early 1990s. Mental health workers, drug and alcohol addiction counselors and others are more accessible, she said.
But if Saskatchewan closes another 50 small hospitals and health centres, as the Fyke Commission on Medicare recommends, she worries the services and many farm women’s jobs will go along with them.
Sabiston, who also chairs the advisory group for the province’s farm stress line, said she is also worried about the impact closures would have on abused farm women.
In many places women can call 911 for help, but on a lot of farms they can’t.
“If you can’t get a vehicle, you’re running,” she said.
The stress level on farms is high, and people often take that out on their families.
Bigger health districts and fewer facilities could mean services to help people in those situations are gone, she said.
The health care committee wrapped up six weeks of hearings last week. It is to file a written report by Aug. 30.
