By Norm Park

of The Mercury

 

Anesthetic services at St. Joseph's Hospital in Estevan are being cut back severely due to shortages of trained personnel in the system and that has Sun Country and hospital administrative teams looking for some quick solutions.

Speaking with The Mercury on Monday morning, Dr. Vino Padayachee said that he was having to curtail the anesthetic services he was providing for the local medical community due to the shortage of back-up anesthesiologists within Sun Country.

"I've been doing it for the past six months, but eventually it becomes an issue of safety," Padayachee said, noting that he and Dr. Diane Naidu are the only physicians in the local community now qualified to provide that necessary service and she is most often involved in maternity delivery processes in the operating room which removes her from being able to provide that service.

With an acute shortage of doctors in the region, many patients from the rural areas who would usually be served in smaller communities, are now finding their way to Estevan to be treated by Estevan-based physicians. The problem is, there are just eight local physicians, including one surgeon/specialist to accommodate them. This is a decrease of about four or six from the recommended number to serve a city and area of this size.

"It's been too many hours already. It gets to the point where you just can't continue. When you get on a commercial airline, you are assured that your pilot has slept a proper number of hours. We can't say that about our physicians. If you can't give safe care, then you have to do something about it," said the veteran doctor who operates a three-doctor medical clinic in Estevan besides providing services at the hospital.

"Doctors who left are not being replaced and southeast Saskatchewan is one of the growth areas of the province. We have people migrating from other provinces to here," he added. "The general practitioners' workload is increasing, we're responding to hospital emergencies and then we're fielding local and regional calls all the time. We're trying to be everything for everybody, but eventually something gives," said Padayachee.

He suggested that certification for foreign-trained doctors could be made   simpler in Saskatchewan, noting that this province was seen to be "one of the trickier ones in which to get certified and approved" compared with other provinces.

He said British Columbia just recently opened up their process even more, which could make it more difficult to recruit doctors here.

But that's a long-range situation, he said. The more immediate concern is finding doctors with specialized talents who can work locally.

Cal Tant, chief executive officer for Sun Country, said that the sudden removal of the anesthetic services in Estevan was still fresh on the agenda, so it would be difficult to react immediately to the question.

Normand Poirier, executive director at St. Joe's, said a Tuesday meeting had been arranged with the medical teams, including Padayachee, to see what could be arranged moving forward.

"If we're down to one anethestist, then something has to be done. We have to find where the problems and gaps exist. In the meantime, I know Sun Country has been trying to recruit at least one more and I believe there are two physicians now who are expressing interest in coming here, but we can't slight the current implications, we need to get input from the nurses and doctors," Poirier said.

Tant and Poirier said they were informed of the curtailment of the service late Friday, so hadn't had much opportunity to design a Band-Aid plan.

Tant said the region's chief medical health officer, Dr. Allain Lenferna was made aware of the situation but "we have to have a plan before we can issue a statement."

"We're not downplaying the situation at all, " said Poirier. "We need to assess the potential impact of the announcement and then react and right now this is all in the early stages."

For his part, Padayachee said "Sun Country says they're trying, and I believe they are, but no results. It's just not a sustainable service. I'm not trying to be dramatic here. I realize that by withdrawing services it's causing a disruption. We don't want things to collapse. We have bright people around here, so why can't we be proactive? We have to decide what services we can provide immediately and then long term. All I can say it's not good enough right now. It's not one thing, it's a combination of things that have led to this."