Nearly 100 residents of Kamsack and area attended a rally on April 15 to protest a long-term interruption in services at their hospital.
Since last Monday, Kamsack Hospital has been without emergency room and inpatient services due to insufficient physician coverage. The situation is expected to continue until the fall, when two new doctors are scheduled to arrive.
"We're trying to send a message that Kamsack needs a little more support from Sunrise (Health Region) and the people there," said Darryl Binkley, one of the organizers of the rally and a former mayor of Kamsack. "We want a commitment from Sunrise that our hospital's going to stay open down the road when we obtain a couple more physicians."
Binkley's group feels that the health region doesn't "take the situation seriously" in Kamsack, which has an extensive history of physician shortages and service interruptions.
Residents are being directed to emergency rooms in Canora and Yorkton for the duration of the service interruption. Binkley says the situation is not acceptable considering the large rural area surrounding Kamsack that relies on its health services.
In the short term, the protesters hope to pressure Sunrise into finding temporary physicians to cover the next few months at Kamsack Hospital.
"We do have two doctors coming in the fall," said Binkley, "but the summertime is our busiest time at the lake. We get an extra two or three thousand people coming into our area, and we need a hospital open."
Health region interim CEO Suann Laurent visited Kamsack on the day of the protest. Her meetings with the local physician recruitment committee and town council addressed some of the protesters' concerns, said Binkley.
"Part of the problem was the press release that they released initially wasn't very clear on exactly what the actions were and what was happening. Suann Laurent did clarify a few things, which helped."
Laurent reassured residents that no staff would be laid off as a result of the interruption and no major equipment would be moved out of the hospital.
But the protesters still worry for the future of the Kamsack Hospital, both over the next few months and after the resolution of this latest coverage crisis.
"We're just trying to secure the long-term stability of our hospital," Binkley said.
