Saskatoon doctor’s office closing amid family physician shortage

In the midst of the family physician shortage being felt around the province, Saskatoon is losing a doctor’s office.

Broadway Family Physicians will be closing effective Wednesday, according to a recorded message that plays for callers trying to reach the clinic. A manager at the clinic declined 650 CKOM’s request for an interview.

The message did provide some information on where the doctors currently working there will be going once the clinic closes its doors.At least four doctors are relocating their practices, the message explained, with three moving to City Centre Family Physicians on Preston Avenue in Saskatoon.

One of the clinic’s doctors is ending their family practice altogether, and another — Dr. Corina Getz — is relocating to Cornerstone Medical Clinic in the Stonebridge neighbourhood, but is ending her family practice to move into women’s health and maternity care instead.Getz has been Heather Shantz’s doctor for the past 17 years and has delivered eight of her nine children.

Shantz said her youngest child is two months old, and just had a final checkup with the doctor before she relocates.

The mom and Broadway Family Physicians patient said she doesn’t know exactly why the office is closing its doors, but said she is “so sad” to lose her doctor.

The closure has left Shantz with the difficulty of figuring out her next move when it comes to her medical care and that of her family.”I have a relationship with her, and so that now leaves me in a place of ‘What next?’ ” Shantz said.

She’s now working to get a new doctor for her family, but said there aren’t a lot of options out there.

“I’ve looked. There is not a lot to choose from,” Shantz lamented.”Especially when you have a lot of trust with a doctor like that, you just don’t want to pick anybody.”

The Saskatoon Health Authority previously provided an information page through its website, listing family doctors who are accepting new patients in various areas around the province.

There were no doctors listed as accepting patients in October, and the SHA has since removed the page from its website.

The provincial government is taking steps to address the shortage of family doctors and other health-care workers in Saskatchewan, including a $60-million multi-year investment aiming to add 1,000 more people to the province’s health-care workforce.In an email, the Ministry of Health confirmed it was aware the clinic would be closing.

“There are Human Health Resource challenges across the country that Saskatoon is also currently facing,” the statement read.

“While overall physician supply in the province is increasing, there may be instances of local vacancies.”

The statement said the province is committed to supporting and growing the health-care workforce in Saskatchewan and called recruitment and retention of physicians to the province a “top priority.”