Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region: Needs assessment to be presented June 26

June 4, 2013, 1:59 am
Kevin Weedmark

A needs assessment for the Moosomin area will be presented to the Regina Qu'Appelle Regional Health Authority June 26.

The Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region has been working on a needs assessment to determine if the health needs of the Moosomin area are being met or if changes to facilities or services are required to meet those needs.

The needs assessment was proposed by the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation a year ago. A presentation was made to the regional health authority last June, and the health authority approved the needs assessment in August.

Bill MacPherson, chair of the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation, says the impetus for the study is the foundation's belief that the Southeast Integrated Care Centre in Moosomin does not have the capacity to meet current and future needs.

"The place is too small," he said. "There are just not enough beds for the area that we're serving from there. If they had listened to us to begin with (when the facility was originally planned) we wouldn't be where we are at.

"The doctors are doing their best with what they've got there, but they're so busy it's just crazy.

"If you go into outpatients, you appreciate what Moosomin's got-you've got people coming from all over to use that facility and to be treated by our doctors."

MacPherson said he has been involved as much as he could be in the needs assessment process. "I think they have been very thorough in looking at the needs of the entire area," he said. "It's not just the Moosomin area they've looked at, but the Kipling, Broadview, and Whitewood facilities, and the Rocanville area-they've been very thorough."

MacPherson said he's hoping the needs assessment concludes that Moosomin needs additional services and space.

"I'm hoping for a bigger facility, more acute beds, more long term beds, more services, more doctors," he said. "It's a big wish list. I think we need more doctors to handle the people who are coming to them now, and for that we need a bigger facility. There is so much more that we could do here. I would like to see a scope program in Moosomin, but we're just not big enough. We don't have the beds."

A small steering committee oversaw the needs assessment. The committee included a representative of the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation, a manager from SEICC, a data analyst for the health region, a representative of population health, and two senior executives of the health region.

The consultant who completed the needs assessment sought local input from focus groups, administrators and health care professionals. The study covered the entire range of health care services in the region.

The SEICC currently has 58 long-term care beds and 27 acute care beds, and provides a wide range of services, including community oncology.