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Without making any promises, the provincial government said on Monday it would take a closer look at the acute care situation at Galloway Health Centre in Oxbow.
980 CJME first reported on Monday that the town’s health centre had the staffing and equipment needed to treat acute care patients, but anyone needing to be treated in hospital for more than 24 hours must be sent to a facility where beds are allowed for acute care use, at least an hour away.
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The Galloway Health Centre has eight temporary care beds, 12 long term care beds, a lab and X-ray facility, and offers palliative care, recreational therapy, and respite care.
At least three doctors work at the facility for a local population of about 1,200, plus nurses, and other health-care workers.
On Monday, when the issue was brought up during question period by the Sask. NDP, Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said he and Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr would reach out to the community.
“We will absolutely be working with the community of Oxbow to understand what their current services are, but I would just say that whenever we expand services we want to make sure that that’s sustainable into the future,” said Cockrill.
He explained there are things they would need to confirm before moving ahead.
“Do we have the staffing to expand services, and do we have some commitment there from the staffing that we can do that and it’ll be sustainable for the residents in that area?”
Cockrill also took the opportunity to tout his government’s health-care recruitment efforts, saying the whole reason the conversation about expansion in Oxbow could occur was because of stable staffing from the government’s various programs.
When reached out to by community members and by 980 CJME, Carr and previous rural and remote health minister Tim McLeod responded that the current complement of beds was meeting the community’s needs and government wasn’t actively reconsidering re-designation.
— with files from Lara Fominoff, 650 CKOM
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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the name of the current rural and remote health minister