Virtual care helps rural Saskatchewan patients avoid long trips for basic health needs

Rural Saskatchewan residents often spend more time travelling to see a doctor than they do receiving care, and a new report suggests virtual medicine is increasingly filling that gap.

Many rural residents in Saskatchewan travel 45 minutes to more than an hour to access health-care services, according to a 2024 report from the University of Regina’s Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit. The report also found health-care vacancy rates rose significantly between 2019 and 2023, contributing to clinic closures, reduced hours and fewer available primary care providers in some communities.

New data from Dialogue, an employer-funded virtual care and wellness platform, suggests many common health concerns can be handled remotely, cutting wait times and reducing travel for patients in rural areas.

According to the company, 65 per cent of visits through its platform result in a prescription, eight per cent lead to a referral and fewer than seven per cent end in an emergency room visit. Dialogue says patients connect with a medical professional within an hour on average, compared with waits of days or weeks for some in-person appointments.

“Reduced availability of primary care services, combined with long distances to clinics or hospitals, creates significant barriers to timely care for rural families,” said Dr. Marc Robin, Dialogue’s medical director and a practising physician.

Robin said employer-funded virtual care can help ease pressure on clinics and emergency departments by giving patients access to medical advice, prescriptions and followup care without requiring travel.

Dialogue’s platform connects patients with licensed physicians, nurses and mental health professionals for non-emergency consultations, chronic-condition management and counselling.

The company said virtual care is intended to complement local clinics and hospitals, allowing in-person resources to focus on more complex cases while patients manage routine health needs from home.

For many rural families, Robin said, that can mean less time on the road, fewer missed work days and faster access to prescriptions, referrals and followup care.

“As Saskatchewan continues to grapple with health-care staffing and access challenges, virtual care is proving to be more than a convenience,” he said. “It’s becoming an essential part of how care is delivered, especially outside the province’s major cities.”