Representatives from the Sun Country Regional Health Authority met with Estevan city councillors, Estevan RM representatives, Estevan Mayor Gary St. Onge, RM Reeve Kelly Lafrentz and representatives from St. Joseph's Hospital board of directors and St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation last week.
The meeting was held to sort out a number of issues, but the most important one was the ongoing concerns associated with physician recruitment and retention, said St. Onge who agreed to speak with The Mercury following the in-camera session.
The participants were able to get on the same page on a number of items, he said.
"For instance, St. Joe's Foundation didn't know we (City of Estevan) had an apartment available for transition housing for health professionals and that the RM had a house available for the same purpose," said St. Onge.
Mark Arthur, Sun Country's recruitment and retention manager,noted that recruitment packages from a number of communities are flowing through to potential candidates.
"We have our Estevan package from the Estevan and Area Board of Tourism, Trade and Commerce," said St. Onge, who reported that the city may be one step closer to welcoming a new doctor who is scheduled to begin work in the Energy City very soon. That would bring the local physician complement up to eight. Sun Country has stated that the ideal physician number in Estevan would be 14.
St. Onge said a conflict involving Sun Country's decision to subsidize the cost of retaining three apartments in Weyburn for health care professionals, that did not extend to Estevan, is now on the path to 小蓝视频 resolved.
"Sun Country was subsidizing the transition apartment in Weyburn for the past three years, but the local committee in Estevan was having to do it here," said St. Onge, who said he now understands that some compensation will be provided by Sun Country. The regional administration had stated earlier that one reason the subsidy had not included Estevan was the fact that no transition apartment could be located.
In an earlier letter to Estevan's council, Sharon Bauche, Sun Country's board chairwoman, said the subsidized transition housing program was initiated in 2008 and Sun Country provided nominal support in the amount of $3,600 per year to communities that were required to rent accommodation for the newly acquired health professionals. The amount is now 小蓝视频 revised due to inflation.
"The SCHR endeavours to not show favouritism to Weyburn over any facility or community within our health region," Bauche said in the letter.
St. Onge said that this matter was cleared up while the vice-president, medical, Dr. Alain Lenferna, reported that provincial assessment processes for incoming doctors is 小蓝视频 stepped up to run more efficiently with changes to clinic qualifications coming soon.
"We did ask a lot of questions about this. We learned that while Estevan has gained and lost 14 physicians in the last few years, Weyburn has lost just two, so it's obvious we need to provide a more welcoming environment in Estevan so that we can get some doctors to stay here. Apparently they have been coming here to get their proper qualifications and shortly after they obtain them, they leave," said St. Onge.
Estevan's mayor said the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association has expressed displeasure with the fact that so many provincial communities find themselves battling one another in the physician recruitment process, with the stakes 小蓝视频 raised with each new round of recruitment.
St. Onge also said the local group will continue to badger Sun Country for a financial statement regarding the operation of Weyburn General Hospital.
In the past, St. Joseph's Hospital has complied with demands for a complete financial report to the region since it is an affiliated facility whereas Weyburn General's finances are buried within the total Sun Country report.
"It shouldn't be impossible to break out the Weyburn General's financial details. We've been told for several years now that it could be done and we'd get the report, but we've never seen one yet," said St. Onge. "If they can't do it, then someone isn't doing their job.
"We let them know we weren't happy about that, and we weren't happy about the housing subsidies we didn't know about, and we expected to get some money back and we also told them we wanted the report from the acute care study or survey that is underway but was stalled due to the recent upheaval there," said St. Onge, referring to the fact that Sun Country just recently dismissed the CEO Calvin Tant following the resignation of the vice-president of finance and administration, Hal Schmidt, under clouds of controversy.
"But they're back on the survey now and that should help them determine whether or not we can get regional hospital status. We were asked to be team players, regardless of what the decision is with the regional hospital question, if it's placed in Estevan or Weyburn. I told them that as long as the playing field was level, we were on board, but we've seen this game played before with the central office decisions for health and education, so we're not always going to believe that this would be the case when it came to determining regional hospital locations," said St. Onge.
The case was also made for an improvement to Sun Country's imaging and diagnostic screening and image readings. Estevan's mayor said that the city might be a viable candidate for an imaging centre, either public or privately operated, since most imaging services in the province are provided through privately held corporations. Those attending the meeting included Sun Country's interim CEO Marga Cugnet; Lori Carr, Estevan's appointed representative to the Sun Country board; along with Arthur, the recruitment manager, and Dr. Lenferna.
Local representatives included Michel Cyrenne, manager of the board of Tourism, Trade and Commerce; Estevan councillor Roy Ludwig; Lafrentz and St. Onge along with RM administrator Greg Hoffort and Estevan city manager Jim Puffalt; St. Joseph's board chairman Don Kindopp; St. Joe's executive director Normand Poirier; St. Joe's Foundation director Roxy Blackmore; and St. Joe's board members Brigette Bittman and John Billesberger.
"By the time we went around the table a few times, I felt a whole lot better at the end. I felt there is now a better chance of us working together. But there are other questions. We told the Sun Country people we expect to meet with them again," said St. Onge.
He added that he expected that would be shortly after the acute care survey and study had been completed and well before the report came out.
