Leader sees one physician leaving, one arriving
By Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Your West Central Voice
LEADER – The rural Saskatchewan community of Leader continues work on recruiting medical professionals, but a volunteer feels some Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and provincial government changes could help.
Pam Busby, a 26-year veteran of Leader’s physician recruitment committee and former mayor, noted in a phone call with Your West Central Voice Oct. 14 that the community’s one physician plans to move on soon, but that a new doctor has been recruited and will start sometime in October, with the hopes of seeing more physicians arriving in the new year.
Busby stated she got involved in physician recruitment in the early 2000s because the community she’s called home her entire life needed help finding medical professionals; volunteers took their community’s name, Leader, to heart and decided to become leaders and engage in direct physician recruitment with the blessing of the health region at the time.
The committee benefited from physician and neighbourly help, gathering advice and input from different sources. However, physician recruitment is a never-ending project and while recruitment efforts continue, it appears Leader will have a doctor shortage for the time being.
“It’s not great,” said Busby when asked what the physician situation in Leader looks like right now. Busby noted one challenge rural communities like Leader face when recruiting and retaining medical professionals is the lure of larger urban centres. Those larger urban centres can offer jobs with no on-call requirements and obvious civic amenities. “We as communities need to promote what small town living is all about and how newcomers can fit into our ways and culture with ease,” said Busby. “They too can live the best life in rural Saskatchewan; we just need to show them how.”
However, Busby stated she felt in the past physician recruitment and retention was more successful when the health regions had a full-time rural physician support person who spent one-on-one time with rural physicians and provided more support for medical professionals than community volunteers could do on their own. She feels that is a much-needed piece that needs to be addressed sooner than later.
Busby mused that a dedicated SHA/provincial government support person for rural medical professionals, in the individual districts, would be a key factor in making retention more successful for small communities.
Busby stated she is aware Leader isn’t the only community feeling healthcare pressure, adding that even city residents who need healthcare are facing long wait times and some doctors’ clinics are not taking new patients.
She noted that recruitment of medical professionals is not only an SHA/government responsibility but also a community responsibility and that the more welcoming, accommodating and supportive a community is, the more likely a medical professional will arrive and stay. “We all need to take part in making these professionals feel welcome in our communities,” she added.
Even though Leader may have one physician for now, Busby noted there are other resources available that can help out, such as locum nurse practitioners, locum doctors and “Virtual Physician,” which she noted can be quite effective if people are patient and willing to try it out.
She pointed out Leader residents also have access to HealthLine 811, which according to the provincial government, “... is a confidential, 24-hour health and mental health and addictions advice, education and support telephone line ... staffed by experienced and specially trained doctors, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, and registered social workers.” It’s a free service available 24 hours a day to Saskatchewan residents.