CEO says finding doctors is top priority

November 17, 2012, 11:10 am
Kevin Weedmark

With hospital services reduced in Kipling due to a shortage of physicians, the CEO of the Sun Country Health Region says that recruiting physicians to work in the district is the top priority for the health region.

"It's probably more akin to a health centre as it's operating right now," CEO Marga Cugnet said Thursday.

"During the open hours, nurses are available if somebody comes in and needs an antibiotic, or if the doctor is booking elective procedures. The lab and x-ray departments are operating as usual, but there are no emergency and no in-patient services."

While the one remaining doctor in Kipling has said he is willing to be the sole physician staffing the hospital, Cugnet said the health region doesn't want any hospitals operating with only one physician.

"It's been a practice in the region to have at least two physicians in any community if we're going to have a hospital open," said Cugnet.

"We've been quite consistent in telling communities we don't expect a solo physician to keep a hospital open. In this case if he was on his own for two weeks, fine, but we don't know how long it will be before we find another doctor, so we don't want to be relying on just one. We told him we would rather he focus on providing services in his clinic. People access over 96 per cent of services in the doctor's office. He was willing to be the only physician responsible for the hospital, but we didn't think it was fair to him or the community."

Cugnet said the health region is working with the community and the province on recruiting physicians.

"It is a partnership," she said. "It's the communities, it's the region, it's the provincial SaskDocs recruitment agency- it's all of us working together. In Kipling the community is taking the lead."
Cugnet said there has been more focus on recruitment over the last few years.

"We've had to create a recruitment department, and we have three people working on recruitment all the time," she said.

"This is top priority. Physicians are a key link to most, if not all of our programs. They are essential to keep our facilities open."

The doctor shortage is worse than some may realize.

"Right now we're at a 50 per cent vacancy rate across the health region," said Cugnet. "It's been getting higher over the last couple of years. Even thought we've been successful in our recruitment efforts, we have been losing doctors as well."

"In the past year we've attracted five new doctors, including three through the SIPPA program, but at the same time nine doctors left the region as well.

"A year ago Estevan was in crisis with physicians, and now they're almost up to the number they require. We need 12-13 there and in Weyburn."

She said that the health region would like to have three practitioners to serve the Kipling area, but has been in talks with the Regina-Qu'Appelle Health Region about sharing resources between Kipling and Broadview.

"Our plan would be to have three practitioners serving Kipling, which might be two doctors and a nurse practitioner, but we're looking at partnering with Broadview, and there could be six practitioners altogether between the two-there could be four docs and three nurse practitioners, or three and three."

Cugnet said the health region is trying to encourage Saskatchewan medical graduates to consider practicing in Sun Country through everything from residencies in family medicine to up to $100,000 in medical school bursaries for those who commit to practising in the region.

"We are providing practicum experience which is very targeted to help familiarize students with practice in rural Saskatchewan-they will come for six weeks to three months as part of their training. We've had that opportunity in Weyburn and Estevan as well as Radville.

"We hope at some point they will get to know the community and facility and hopefully some of them will choose to practice here," said Cugnet.

"There's also the family medicine residency program, which is two years of specialty in family medicine. Sun Country has made application, and we hope we can get four medical students doing their residency here.

"They would be here for the two years immediately before beginning their career."

There has been some uptake on the region's bursary program for both doctors and nurses.

"We have four bursaries for medical students. They are eligible for $25,000 a year for medical school for four years. For each year they accept the bursary, they commit to practising one year in Sun Country. We actually have four on the bursary right now."

While the recent reduction in hours at the Kipling Medical Centre is due to a shortage of nurses, Cugnet believes that problem will be solved as soon as the physicians are in place to reopen the hospital.

"One nurse actually did go to Regina Qu'Appelle, but will come back when we restore the services."

Cugnet said it is generally not difficult to recruit nurses for Weyburn and Estevan, but recruiting them for smaller communities can be difficult.

"We recruited 47 new grads and experienced nurses into the region last year, but they really don't want to go into the smaller centres," she said.

"To get them into Kipling, Arcola, Redvers is still a real challenge. We expanded our bursary program for nurses outside of Weyburn and Estevan, and none accepted it."

She said progress is being made on recruiting a doctor for Kipling.

"We've had discussions with three physicians already," she said. "One is ready to do part time work, and we're still talking to her. One is internationally educated, we're seeing if they are eligible for the SIPPA program. It takes awhile, and with immigration, it can take six months to a year to get them in. We're really hoping to find someone from Saskatchewan because that can go a lot faster."

A new integrated facility is planned for Kipling. Cugnet said the region is hoping to break ground in the spring.

But how can the region plan for the future, including a new facility, when staffing is a question mark?

"That factor is always in our minds," says Cugnet. "That's why we've been looking at whether we can do a partnership with Broadview to make it sustainable. We've had two doctors in Kipling and when one leaves on holidays you're leaving one alone.

"We're hoping if we work together with Broadview, rather than two sites that are on the edge, you have two sites that are much more stable.

"We're putting lots of effort into this, because we don't want Kipling hospital to close. We know it puts pressure on other facilities, and on the doctors in Moosomin."