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PHYSICIAN RECRUITMENT & RETENTION CONTINUES
I’d like to take this opportunity to bring the constituents of Martensville-Warman an update as to the progress that is being made to recruit additional physicians into our area’s medical clinics.
But, before I begin, I want to emphasize that our cities are not alone. Physician shortages are occurring in many areas of our province, our country and indeed all over the world. Recruitment efforts by Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and our recruitment agency SaskDocs are ongoing and both organizations are working with clinic operators to fill vacancies in clinics located in both Warman and Martensville.
Since the delegation of physicians met with Premier Moe, Health Minister Paul Merriman, Rural & Remote Health Minister Everett Hindley and myself at the Legislature on May 4, I’ve met with or have spoken to doctors in our constituency as well as both city councils. Further to that, I’ve also been in regular contact with Minister Merriman and officials from the Ministry of Health to convey progress information back and forth between all parties involved.
As I’ve stated before, recruitment of physicians is a difficult challenge given the environment our world has been in over the past couple of years. The problem in our constituency is complicated even further given how quickly the cities of Warman and Martensville have grown over the last 15 years.
I’ve responded to many emails and telephone calls over the last number of weeks from residents wondering what’s being done and how much longer it will be before we have new doctors here seeing patients.
The Ministry of Health is exploring various ways of navigating around and overcoming the challenges of recruitment. Solutions to the complex problem of physician recruitment in our constituency and our province involves the collaboration and cooperation of our partners such as the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA).
Work is ongoing by our Ministry of Health, SHA, SaskDocs, our municipal governments, and these other regulatory bodies to do everything possible to encourage physicians to relocate and practice in Warman and Martensville as soon as possible. Solutions involving medical residents, nurse practitioners, international physicians, and others are all options but each come with their own set of unique challenges and barriers that must be overcome.
The Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority are currently working directly with our local clinic to facilitate the recruitment of physicians and nurse practitioners as soon as possible.
The list of work completed or underway by SHA and SaskDocs to date include the following initiatives:
- SaskDocs and SHA hosted a Virtual Family Medicine Resident Career Fair this spring, for Canadian family medicine residents, including the U of S College of Medicine;
- Advertising open positions on saskdocs.ca, the former Saskatoon Health Region site and Social Media channels;
- Family Physicians in the saskdocs.ca database, including Family Medicine residents, receive an automatic email notification of a practice opportunity when the position is posted;
- Connecting with the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) to share the opportunities with their locum physicians;
- Provided information on best practices related to physician retention to the City of Warman’s Economic Development Officer.
Again, recruiting physicians is a difficult challenge and it’s one that the Ministry and I are working on each day. We won’t stop until we have achieved a short-term fix while also implementing long-term solutions that provide physician services in our constituency to anyone who needs them.
INFLATION & AFFORDABILITY
Inflation in our country is at highs not seen in over 40 years thanks in large part to a combination of external factors outside our province’s borders. Geopolitical instability in Ukraine is part of the problem, however much of the inflation that is affecting all of us is being driven by poor economic policies set forth by the federal Liberal government. Fuel and food prices are the most noticeable expenses that have increased substantially over the last number of months, thanks in large part to our country’s dependence on foreign oil imports from Saudi Arabia, the United States and West African countries.
The lack of pipeline development and tanker bans on the west coast for Canadian produced oil and gas products has negatively affected our ability to export to other countries that would increase world supply and drive prices at the pumps back down to manageable levels. At the present time, tankers are banned from the British Columbia coast but are free to come and go with imported foreign oil on the east coast of our country. Add the carbon tax as well as the new Clean Fuel Standard being implemented and energy prices will continue to increase in the months and years ahead.
Our government is looking at the best way to help ease the inflation crunch we are all feeling and will be putting forward a plan that assists all residents in the fairest way possible across the board since inflation affects everyone regardless of spending power. This plan is all dependent on what our province’s first quarter financials look like when they are compiled and released later in July or early August. The province’s first fiscal quarter runs from April 1 to June 30.
LEGISLATIVE SECRETARY APPOINTMENT
On May 31 I was honoured to be appointed by Premier Moe to the role of Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Social Services Gene Makowsky.
The role of a Legislative Secretary comes with many responsibilities that primarily include meeting with stakeholders that fall under the Social Services Ministry and reporting findings back to the Minister, attending announcements and representing the Minister at various functions when required, and working with the Minister on affairs within the Social Services Ministry.
With the new role, I have also been appointed to the Standing Committee on Human Services as well as the Caucus Policy Committee on Human Services. This marks the third standing committee I have been a member of since being elected in October of 2020 with the others being Crowns and Central Agencies as well as Economy. I will continue my role as the provincially appointed board member to Wanuskewin Heritage Park.
Terry Jenson, MLA
Martensville-Warman
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