Staffing shortages forcing rural Sask. hospitals to reduce ER hours

WATCH: Due to summer staffing shortages, some rural hospitals have been forced to restrict ER hours. Wayne Mantyka has the details.

Summer staffing shortages are forcing some rural hospitals around Saskatchewan to restrict emergency room hours.

Maple Creek, Watrous and Kipling are among communities recently affected.

On Tuesday the Opposition NDP visited a number of towns to gauge the impact it’s having on health care.

In Kipling, residents thought their emergency room would resume around the clock operation with the arrival of three new doctors.

“I just met my new doctor, [and] I hope they stay. I liked the one that did leave, and she moved to B.C. I think but if they stay, I’ll be happy,” Kipling resident Mary Arnott said.

While the doctor shortage may have been solved, now the hospital is down to just one x-ray/lab technician, and it means the ER remains closed at night and on weekends.

“We have had four or had four who were both lab and x-ray techs. One is on [maternity] leave, one has relocated to another community with her family,” Kipling Mayor Patricia Jackson said.

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The situation is also concerning to an investment group that built a large rental complex across the street from the hospital.

“And the people in this area would like to stay in Kipling in their senior years and that’s what our building is for, but it very much depends on the hospital being open and functioning,” Eric Widdup from Willow Height Estates said.

Changes to emergency room hours are publicized on the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s (SHA) website, but the NDP believes the government must do a better job informing the public.

“The public has a right to know and the fact that these notices aren’t being broadcast by the government publicly is very situating to me,” NDP MLA Keith Jorgenson said.

The SHA is continuing to recruit employees, and Kipling is doing its part to help. The local hospital foundation owns three houses for doctors and is adding an apartment for out-of-town lab techs interested in picking up shifts.