(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

New Physician

Porcupine Carragana Hospital resumes 24/7 health services, adds new physician

Jul 24, 2023 | 5:28 PM

Those in Porcupine Plain and its surrounding area now have access to 24/7 in-person healthcare, once again.

The Porcupine Carragana Hospital officially resumed around-the-clock emergency room (ER) services and acute care admissions on July 24

“It’s pretty hard to run a community or have anybody want to live here and make a life here if they’re concerned about their health, and if they don’t feel like they can get health services, they got their eye on being elsewhere,” said Porcupine Plain’s Mayor, Nick Wood.

The facility had previously been running on part-time hours, due in large part to staffing shortages.

Only one physician was working at the hospital for a while, which meant they were only open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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Those hours then changed to include Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., before increasing to 8 a.m. to 12 midnight daily, courtesy of the Virtual Physician (VP) pilot program.

This was a temporary measure that uses HealthLine 811 to provide nursing staff with remote access to a physician located elsewhere in the province during periods of physician shortages or other coverage issues in a community.

“While we have had some access to service, we’ve had lots of bypasses and we’ve been going through different doctors, so people were unsure as to whether the hospital would be open to serve them, whether they’d be able to see their doctor or if they’d have to go through the whole process again with a new physician,” Wood added.

That will now be over as Dr. Mohammad Kafi, who recently completed the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program, becomes the second physician in town.

“The SHA would like to welcome Dr. Mohammad Kafi to the community, who joins Dr. Hany Ibrahim to provide local coverage for acute care, emergency, and primary health care services in Porcupine Plain,” read a statement from the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

The SHA also said they are committed to fully restoring emergency services in Porcupine Plain, which is why the community has been approved for a third physician position, as part of an overall strategy for stabilizing emergency services in the community.

Recruitment for this position is underway, and according to Wood, they are expecting the physician to arrive in either late September or early October.

“We have been allotted for a third position which has been our long-term goal here since our previous position had retired years ago because we need to take some pressure off the doctors and allow them to have an actual work-life balance, so they can be part of the community and spend time with their families,” he explained.

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