Saskatchewan urban residents have long accepted long waiting times at the emergency rooms of major city hospitals. But in smaller communities, the problem can be finding an emergency room that is open.
At some time in the past year, most of the province’s 12 regional health authorities have had to reduce their emergency services or close hospitals because they didn’t have enough doctors.
Last week the Sunrise Health Region sent out a notice that there would be no emergency or outpatient services at the Canora hospital for 24 hours beginning Sept. 20 at 8 a.m. because no doctor was available.
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In August, the Saskatoon Health Region re-opened Wakaw’s emergency department after it had been closed for nine months because of a doctor shortage.
The province is also trying to cope with a shortage of nurses.
Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) president Rosalee Longmoore has said registered nurses are critical to keeping rural facilities open.
On Sept. 24, SUN released data showing 256 vacancies for registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses in the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region, up 79 percent from last year.
Of this total, 21 are in the region’s rural facilities.
Longmoore said one staffing concern in rural areas is that new graduates often don’t have enough clinical experience and find it a daunting prospect to take the lead in a smaller hospital.
“They have an awesome degree but they don’t have the same practical experience … and sometimes struggle in the clinical areas if they go to a smaller hospital,” she said in an interview.
She said incorporating a rural rotation in nursing students’ education program would make the prospect of working in a smaller hospital less frightening.
The audit data for all health regions won’t be available for about two weeks but earlier information showed 579 vacancies, 485 nurses eligible to retire this year and only 200 new graduates projected to stay in the province.
“The message and evidence that a nursing shortage was looming in Saskatchewan was clearly communicated to government many times over the last decade,” Longmoore recently told the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association.
SUN has asked the government to immediately provide $260 million to recruit and retain nurses.
On what many expect is the eve of a provincial election, the Saskatchewan Party has already announced a $275 million human resource plan to hire more doctors and registered nurses.
The plan calls for an additional 800 RNs to fill 600 vacancies and add 200 more to the workforce. It would also add 100 physician training seats and fund 60 doctor residency positions in Saskatchewan hospitals.
“Aggressive corrective action combined with a long-term plan to protect Saskatchewan’s health care system from collapsing is needed,” said Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall.
Longmoore said the government should act now, before an election campaign begins.
Health minister Len Taylor has acknowledged shortages in the system. The government has a two year $6 million recruitment and retention program designed to attract 400 nurses and 200 other health care workers.
SUN estimates that 1,428 RNs and RPNs could retire by 2010 and calls the recruitment and retention fund “woefully inadequate.”
