NORTH BATTLEFORD - Battlefords MLA and Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill is looking forward to more positive improvements for the Battlefords with several projects he has been involved with.
Cockrill says he is pleased with one recent announcement by the province with the addition of 77 new and enhanced permanent full-time healthcare positions to benefit 30 rural and remote communities in Saskatchewan. Positions include RNs, LPNs and RPNs, as well as other healthcare professionals in high demand.
From the 77 positions, the Battlefords area will see four new full-time positions, which works out to three nursing positions and one imaging position.
"I think what this is doing is taking what we've done with administrative savings in the Saskatchewan Health Authority ... As we've cut administrative positions, we're taking those resources and allocating those back to the front line, meaning there's more people focused on patient care and delivering actual services to patients," Cockrill said.
He added that over the past few months, the province has looked to see which facilities and which positions have been facing challenges in terms of vacancies, causing disruptions to service.
"What we've done is looked at those specific facilities and areas around the province and said, ok, we're going to add more full-time positions to help attract more people," Cockrill said. "The reality is in rural Saskatchewan, even in a small city in Saskatchewan like us here in the Battlefords, if you're going to attract somebody that isn't from here or would be new to the community, chances are they're not going to come here for a part-time position. They are going to be looking for full-time work."
Cockrill also noted that because they are full-time positions being added, they would be eligible for the province's recruitment incentives.
For the nursing positions, for example, they are eligible for the rural and remote recruitment incentive, which is $50,000 over three years.
"[That's a] pretty significant incentive for people to take those positions and fill them," Cockrill said.
Another priority for the province is introducing a plan for primary care nurse practitioners to provide publicly funded health services in communities in Saskatchewan.
"One of the biggest priorities of our government is making sure that everybody in the province has a primary care provider," Cockrill said. "We're working hard to increase the training opportunities for family physicians by increasing residency seats this year. However, we also are looking at expanding the availability of nurse practitioners in the province as well."
As a result, the province is introducing an independent practice model for nurse practitioners to be able to set up their own clinics and be able to carry their own panel of patients.
"We've had quite a bit of interest from nurse practitioners around the province, including here in the northwest region," Cockrill said.
Currently, the initiative is in the application process, where the province is accepting applications from nurse practitioners around Saskatchewan.
"Later in September, we'll be awarding the first contracts under that model," Cockrill said. "I'm really excited about that, just because we know that family physicians play an important role in primary care, but nurse practitioners also play a very important role and can do a lot of what a family physician does. In many situations, nurse practitioners, I think, can offer a really high level of care for people, and making sure that their families are well taken care of."
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