The Sunrise Health Region steadily hires new medical doctors, but shortages persist.
The region is currently in need of nine more family physicians.
"If the vacancies were spread out evenly, it wouldn't be so bad," says Derek Keller, the region's director of EMS and medical services. "But Yorkton is short five family physicians and the northern part of our health region is short two in Kamsack, one in Canora, one in Preeceville--and the one in Preeceville, that's actually half, because there's only two doctors in that community."
Yorkton also requires four more specialists in internal medicine.
Between family physicians and specialists, 54 doctors are presently employed around Sunrise.
Recruitment efforts are shared between physician clinics, municipalities, and the health region.
These stakeholders hope that increased efforts by the provincial government could be a light at the end of the tunnel. The recently-formed Physician Recruitment Agency of Saskatchewan is now getting its work underway.
"They are starting to really ramp up recruitment efforts and processes," Keller says. "In the next couple weeks, the agency will come to our region and we will be looking at anything on our end that we can do to speed up the physician recruitment process."
Many obstacles are beyond the health region's control, Keller notes. For instance, the long-awaited arrival of Dr. Ajayi to Kamsack has been held up by immigration issues. The doctor is still expected to arrive within a few weeks.
The region's other recent recruits are both in Yorkton: obstetrician Dr. Otukoya, who begins his practice this week, and internist Dr. Oloko. The latter fills one vacancy in the city's internal medicine department.
"We're always recruiting physicians," says Keller. "It never ends."
