Searching for a family doctor, going to an emergency room or seeking medical care has been a challenging and nerve-racking experience for many the last few years.
For those in rural communities, it is even harder to find help.
Throughout 2024 and into 2025, the small community of Kipling, Sask., has struggled to keep physicians at its hospital.
Patricia Jackson is the mayor of Kipling. She said over the last year, multiple doctors have come and gone, and two doctors will be leaving at the end of January.
It will leave Kipling relying on one physician, nursing staff and locums to fill the needs until two more doctors can be hired.
“This is the first time that I can think of where we’ve had people buy out their contracts with SHA and leave,” Jackson said.
“We’re not expecting somebody is going to wave a magic wand and things are all going to be fixed, but for our local people … this is really tough.”
It’s a situation found in emergency rooms across the province.
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According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) website, several emergency rooms are currently operating at reduced hours due to service disruptions.
One of them includes Wolseley’s Memorial Integrated Care Centre where the ER is only open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Acute care services also remain unavailable at this time.
The reduced hours have been in place for the last nine months.
“It’s tough to get nurses and support staff and doctors out in rural areas,” Wolseley mayor Gerald Hill said. “There are openings for nurse practitioners in rural Saskatchewan… they just aren’t getting the applicants.
“In the struggle to bring in more doctors and nurses, the community has had to create its own incentives and support for doctors to stay there.
“We’ve been supporting them in any way possible and helping them with housing supports, fitting in the community and they are very appreciative of that.”
A photo of the Wolseley, Saskatchewan hospital.
Courtesy of Gerald Hill
The SHA said the competition for doctors in the province can make retention difficult.
“There’s lot of opportunities for physicians in Saskatchewan to move elsewhere,” SHA southeast primary health care director Trent Truscott said. “There’s always somebody looking for a doctor right now.”
Hill said the increased efforts to help with issues like housing have been successful and families are staying. But they still need more help.
“How can we make it more attractive to get employees out into these areas, and I think that’s a partnership that needs to happen between municipal, provincial and SHA to work together to kind of come up with an idea,” Hill said.
