The emergency room at the Radville Marian Health Centre will be closed over New Year’s Eve, scheduled to re-open at 8 a.m. tomorrow. The closure due to a physician shortage, which started at 8 a.m. this morning, was announced via the town’s alert system.
The closure is the 7th that has been announced since the start of November, with nearly all of them identified as due to a physician shortage. The issue with coverage by doctors has been one that has been front and centre for the community, with former mayor Rene Bourassa stating in September it felt as though they were being ignored by the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
Earlier this month, the SHA announced they were introducing the virtual physician program at the health centre in Radville. The program uses a physician from elsewhere in the province that nursing staff can connect to by phone or video when there are no local doctors available.
“It is a temporary measure that bridges the gap between having all of our physician vacancies filled and having local physicians being able to cover all of the ER coverage,” Jacqui Kennett-Peppler, the director of primary healthcare in southeast Saskatchewan for the SHA, said at the time.
There is a new doctor slated to start working in Radville in the new year. The doctor, who is currently undergoing the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment program, is expected to begin in the community in February.