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Melfort Wellness Centre recognized

Nov 8, 2018 | 11:52 AM

Melfort’s Wellness Centre has received an honour through the Saskatchewan Municipal Awards.

The project earned second place, and Melfort will accept the award at the annual Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention in Saskatoon in Feb.

In a news release, SUMA stated the city “in partnership with regional members, developed a comprehensive health care facility to centralize health services for patients and medical professionals.”

But Mayor Rick Lang said all stakeholders deserve recognition for the project.

“It’s not just the City of Melfort of course, it’s the other surrounding municipalities and their involvement in it as well,” Lang said. “So, you know, it was a combination of a cooperative effort for sure that involved up to 20 different parties I’ll say, and so you know, it’s nice to get that recognition.”

Lang said other partners in the project included local First Nations, the former Kelsey Trail Health Region, Avatex Development Corporation, the local physicians, and surrounding rural municipalities.

The Wellness Centre, which helped centralize health services in the community, has achieved what the city had intended, according to Lang.

“Certainly it achieved what we were looking for, which was to enhance service delivery to local residents, and to help recruit and retain medical professionals for now and in the future, and it seems to be working very well,” Lang said adding there were 12 physicians when the project began, and that has since grown to 13, with the fourteenth soon on the way.

The facility could house as many as 16 doctors.

Lang said the physicians and patients are both reaping the benefits of having centralized service.

“The doctors see some synergies that have been produced, it’s making their job easier, less stressful and it certainly has enhanced patient care, because in many cases (doctors) are able to see their entire patient workload and deal with anything that comes up because it’s attached right to the hospital, and so they’re not having to cancel patient visits and reschedule,” Lang said.

He added recognition for the Wellness Centre is a bonus, but the improved patient care is what the city was looking for, and that seems to be happening.