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home / 世界杯决赛2022

'this has reached a crisis level:' warman confronts doctor shortage

“quite simply, this has reached a crisis level," warman's mayor told mlas at a conference in regina earlier this week.

by julia peterson

apr 7 2022
read time 3 minute read
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as the office manager for gama family medicine/minor emergency centre in warman, sarah dovell sometimes books up to 20 patients a day to see her clinic’s only doctor. 
but she’s also turning many away. dovell said a shortage of local doctors has left warman understaffed and underserved.
“it’s very frustrating for people, because we are classified as a city, but the city doesn’t have enough health care — it’s a basic necessity,” she said. “sure, we’re trying to build the city with schools, but then all these young families are coming here and they don’t have a family doctor.” 
this hasn’t always been the case.
“when the owner first started the clinic, warman was considered rural saskatchewan,” dovell said. 
being rural meant that doctors could fulfill their return of service requirements by working in warman. in saskatchewan, family doctors who get funding from the province for their training agree to work in a rural community or regional centre outside of saskatoon, regina and prince albert for a few years once they graduate.
but in 2015, warman, located about 20 kilometers north of saskatoon, was reclassified as a “bedroom” community. working there no longer counts towards return of service requirements. 
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“(now) it’s almost impossible for us to recruit any physicians, because the health authority decides when and where physicians go,” dovell said. 
at a saskatchewan urban municipalities association (suma) conference in regina earlier this week, warman mayor gary philipchuk explained the impact of this change.

“ our three medical clinics have exhausted all options trying to recruit doctors because of this unnecessary regulation,” he said. “now, two clinics have been forced to close (temporarily) because of a shortage of doctors while the other faces long wait times. 

“quite simply, this has reached a crisis level. … our residents of warman are forced to travel out of our city to crowded clinics and hospitals everywhere.”
two of the three medical clinics in warman have only one doctor. 
“(our clinic) only has one physician,” dovell said. “so if that physician is away for a medical or personal reason — which he is, at the moment — we close. it’s not like we’re closing our doors forever, but obviously it can’t continue like this for much longer.” 
when the two smaller clinics reach capacity, the third, with its four doctors, “is forced … to see pretty much all the patients from warman, martensville, dalmeny, langham and all the smaller places within the area,” dovell said.
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warman has a population of slightly more than 11,000, according to the 2016 census. but dovell estimates its clinics serve a population of closer to 30,000 when patients from some of the smaller nearby communities are included.
speaking at the suma conference, minister of rural and remote health everett hindley said the provincial government is “taking a look” at ways to get more doctors into communities like warman. 
“we’ve had a conversation with our officials to see if there are perhaps some other approaches we could utilize there to help better serve that community,” he said. 
health minister paul merriman said warman is not alone in facing a doctor shortage. he said all of saskatchewan is in “very tight competition” with the rest of canada and north america for health-care providers.
“we need to backfill a lot of physicians and are trying to do that as fast as possible,” he said.
— local journalism initiative
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