Sask. psychiatrist calls premier's comments about doctors and COVID-19 'disheartening'

Doctors across the province say they're not happy about comments made by Premier Scott Moe earlier this week regarding doctors and combatting disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Premier Moe said that there was an opportunity for the province's medical community to provide guidance to Saskatchewan people and asked that doctors use their expertise to get more people vaccinated.

Dr. Tamara Hinz, a psychiatrist in Saskatoon, took issue with the premier's comments. In a series of Tweets, Hinz said that many medical professionals had been deluging social media since the pandemic began, and that she isn't sure what more they could do.

"Over the past 18 months or so, physicians and other health-care workers in this province really stepped up in an unprecedented way to get out of our comfort zones and really do this public advocacy and education work that he was calling on us to do," Hinz told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.

"The way he had phrased that request just made it really seem like he either hadn't been listening or paying attention to all of those unpaid hours of work that we've been doing since March of 2020."

Hinz said it was especially frustrating when almost 200 doctors signed an open letter to the business community at the start of the pandemic, asking them to do whatever they could to stop the virus's spread.

She said medical staff have started many other campaigns since then, and regularly host Facebook Live town halls talking to concerned parents and battling misinformation.

Hinz said the comments were even worse considering the strain health-care workers are under right now. As of Wednesday, 265 people with COVID-19 are in hospital in the province, setting a new record.

She said a note of thanks from the premier would be appreciated.

"It's work that we want to do. It's work we have been doing," said Hinz.

"I think it just would have been nice to have that acknowledged, to maybe have him reach out and and partner with with health-care workers who are who are doing this kind of work already."

After Hinz's Tweet, other medical professionals also took to social media.