Staff shortages plaguing Saskatchewan’s health care system
“I think my hours are up probably 10 to 20 per cent this year over last year,” says Dr. Adam Ogieglo, a family doctor at Lakeside Medical Clinic. “So I’ve been working that much more.”
My vacation plans were ruined by COVID slow rolling through my household. Instead I’ve been spending my vacation helping out in our urgent care clinic. Why? Because we are short staffed because of doctors and their families also having COVID. Is this living with COVID?“A sense of frustration that we’re just sort of saying, ‘Oh well, this is the way it’s going to be.
The province said last week it will be sending people to Alberta to get privatized surgeries, but the cost of travel won’t be covered.“Currently we have, I would say across the province at least five or six positions that we’ve advertised,” explains Dr. Raazi. “This is in the context of a department which across the province has at least 110 to 120 members.”
“We’ve got 40, 50 deep in the waiting room, people so acutely ill coming in. We have stretchers lined up in the hallway, we have EMS not able to get out because they’re in the hallway with patients, the same for STARS Ambulance,” says Zambory.These staffing shortages and constant stress are making some experts in the industry advocate for a change in the system.