The issues of local doctors were the focus of a meeting scheduled for Tuesday night in North Battleford.
The occasion was a meeting between Saskatchewan Medical Association vice-president Dr. Joanne Sivertson, an obstetrician/gynecologist from Prince Albert, and physicians from the Prairie North Health Region.
The session was part of the SMA President’s Tour that happens annually during the fall.
The SMA, which is the provincial chapter of the Canadian Medical Association, is a voluntary, member-based, professional association for physicians, medical students and residents, and acts as the voice of Saskatchewan’s 2,300 practicing physicians.
North Battleford is one of 12 stops planned for the SMA tour involving the president and the vice-president, with either Sivertson or the SMA president Dr. Intheran Pillay attending.
According to Sivertson, who spoke to the Regional Optimist on the way to North Battleford, the tour is an opportunity to go “to the various health regions and meet with physicians on the ground there, and talk about issues pertinent to them.”
Usually an update is provided at those meetings on SMA initiatives as well as a focus on gathering information on the various issues impacting the regions as well.
“We try to get a sense of where physicians are at, what they’re needs are so we can support them better in the work that we do.”
Some important issues are facing physicians at the moment. A key one, said Sivertson, is health region restructuring.
Sivertson stressed the importance of ensuring that whatever changes happen, patient care is not compromised.
“Physicians are nervous about any change that may adversely affect their ability to provide good patient care, and their ability and their patients’ (ability) to access care. So we’re hearing … questions about regions restructuring.”
Another thing the organization has heard is about “ongoing struggles with access to lab or imaging services and how they are worried they might get worse with restructuring.”
“Most places have similar but different issues,” said Sivertson.
She expected to spend time dealing with questions about the restructuring issue during her North Battleford meeting Tuesday.
A three-person advisory panel has been appointed to look at restructuring and reducing the number of health regions, which would impact on the health profession.
The Sask. Medical Association has an opportunity to meet and make recommendations to the panel on that issue.
Dr. Sivertson expected to report to members on what their recommendations were, and to reassure the regions that “any changes that happen, we are opposed to pure centralization.”
“We’ve said very loudly that we think any changes that happen should respect travel patterns, so patients shouldn’t be forced to go in a direction they wouldn’t typically go to get the care that they need, just because of arbitrary lines in the sand.”
She also said there needed to be “consideration for the different realities outside of the urban centres, especially in the more remote centres” to maintain patient care.
