St. Joseph’s Hospital has provided more information on the changes that are upcoming for obstetrics and anesthesiology services moving forward.
The hospital revealed last week the formation of the South East Family Medicine, Obstetrical & Surgical Group, formerly known as the South East Medical Group. The group will remain located in St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation’s Medical Clinic adjoining to the hospital.
Dr. Edward Krickan, Dr. Brian Geller and Dr. Christy Trafananko will be teaming up to provide obstetric services for Estevan. Krickan has been practising full-time in Estevan, but announced earlier this year he would relocate to his home province of B.C. Krickan will travel back and forth between B.C. and Estevan, and will work part-time here.
Geller has been splitting time between Estevan and Regina, while Trafananko will work in Yorkton and Estevan starting in January.
“We also have others that are doing locum work, but the message is … this group practice is covering obstetrics on a move forward basis,” said St. Joseph’s Hospital executive director Greg Hoffort. “It’s really good news because there’s been a lot of uncertainty and now we can provide greater certainty that obstetrics will be covered in Estevan.”
Trafananko has not practised in Estevan previously.
The three physicians will be determining their schedule with their group to provide full-time coverage of obstetrics between the three of them.
“There’s a lot of moving parts, but we’re confident in our ability to provide the full coverage,” said Hoffort.
Their coverage will include prenatal and newborn care. All three will also provide family medicine services along with Dr. Ryan Cormier and Dr. Neal Cabigon.
In addition, Dr. Andrey Babkis, an anesthesiologist and a general practitioner, has now committed to the provision of anesthesiology services in Estevan moving forward, which is critical for all emergency operating room procedures, including C-section services
He worked full-time in Estevan before taking a four-month sabbatical, and is coming back on a full-time basis. He has been back at work for a few weeks.
Hoffort said the hospital continues to recruit for a permanent obstetrician/gynaecologist and another anesthesiologist.
“It takes more than one, but we have in Dr. Babkis’ absence several physicians that are willing to provide us coverage on a move-forward basis as well to cover for his vacation and give him relief when he needs it,” said Hoffort.
“One of the things that has come from our challenges is we have a few more anesthesiologists willing to work in Estevan on a part-time basis as well, or on a locum basis to meet the full-time needs.”
Hoffort said it is encouraging to have some resolution on both fronts.
“It’s been a source of great frustration for our community,” said Hoffort. “We totally understand that and appreciate their concern, and everything that our management team, the hospital foundation, everyone, collaboratively together, the health authority, certainly has been working diligently to find these solutions and to come up with these solutions together, because it is absolutely our goal to provide these uninterrupted services.”
Physician recruitment is a challenge everywhere, he said, and many other communities are facing the same issues.
The hospital has also recruited a new family physician to come to Estevan. That individual is currently in the final stages for the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment program, and he is slated to come to Estevan in early January.
