Rural Saskatchewan residents are relieved their hospitals are not being closed and that emergency care will improve under a Dec. 5 announcement by the provincial government.
Most residents covered by the Southwest Health District were concerned that facilities would be eradicated, said board chair Delores Tumbach of Leader.
“Most important to them are emergency service and a place to stay for convalescence and palliative care and lab and X-ray testing.”
Tumbach praised the government’s promise to ensure no resident would be more than 30 minutes of travel away from primary health care.
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Linda Restau, chief executive officer of the Twin Rivers district based in Maidstone, agreed that the multi-disciplinary teams are an encouraging concept. She said it would help in recruiting and retaining staff while preventing illness and reducing the need for acute care.
While promising not to immediately close up to 50 smaller hospitals as had been suggested by Ken Fyke in his report to the government, health minister John Nilson said the government would follow some of his other suggestions.
These include:
- Setting up a 24-hour telephone line staffed by nurses to advise people of whether their illness is serious.
- Establishing primary health-care teams that include nurses, doctors and therapists.
- Reducing waiting times for surgery.
- Putting more money into health research.
- Adding more dollars for training health workers including improving the skills of ambulance personnel.
- Establishing a quality council to measure the effectiveness of new drugs, procedures and technologies.
While health-care workers and municipal officials were generally positive, the change drawing the most criticism is the merger of the 32 health care districts into 12 regional health authorities.
The reaction of David Marit, a director of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, was typical.
“We are concerned that with such large health districts, local residents that have the most at stake in any decisions … will have little, if any, influence on health care decision making…., ” he said. ” There is also the concern that it will be much easier to eliminate services and close facilities in rural areas.”
The government is calling for nominations to serve on the 12-person appointed boards that will govern the larger regional health authorities expected to be set up by spring.
