Doctor shortage, abuse, wait times behind temporary closure of Warman clinic

A private medical clinic in Warman will temporarily close its doors to walk-in patients because of a doctor shortage, increasing wait times, and abuse of its staff.

Glenn Murray, pharmacist and co-owner of Legends Medical Clinic, said because there are no physicians currently taking on patients in Saskatoon, his clinic is getting a lot more walk- ins. That has resulted in increased wait times and, in many cases, frustration.

“By 9:30 or 10 o’clock we have a four- (or) five-hour wait. People get frustrated, and I understand that. We all understand that it’s frustrating. But it’s starting to manifest itself in some ugly ways,” Murray said.

His staff, he said, have suffered verbal abuse — including swearing and intimidation — from clients. Members of the public have taken out their frustrations on waiting room furniture and posters on the walls more than once, he added.

Starting Tuesday, Murray said the clinic will be closed to walk- in patients for two weeks.

“This is primarily to allow the physicians to catch up and be able to see their booked appointments. We’ve had to allocate two physicians to walk-in, so the second physician has to put off booked appointments. We only have maybe 3 1/2 full-time physicians,” he said.

There are three medical clinics in Warman, Murray said, but one has been closed for the past six months because the doctor there is injured, while the other clinic has just one doctor on staff.

“Our clinic, for lack of a better term, is run over,” said Murray.

He’s been waiting for word on whether the Martensville and Warman area will be getting several nurse practitioners, but a timeline set out by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) hasn’t materialized, he said.

“There were six postings for Warman and Martensville. The closing date was Sept. 12, and the start date was supposed to be Oct. 1. We’ve had no material conversations with SHA, and the last conversation … they couldn’t answer any of the questions,” he said.

“There’s been zero communication on when that may occur.”

Another source of frustration, he explained, is the fact his clinic has recruited a physician from the United Kingdom, but she’s not able to work yet.

“Now we have to get a Labour Market Impact Assessment done. I think it’s how having a physician from another country would impact the labour market here. Would it displace somebody from a job? We’ve been so short of physicians in this area for years, it should be a moot point,” he said.

“It’s a completely unnecessary delay of months.”

Murray said the process involves explaining how the clinic went about recruiting, showing advertisements and their local recruitment efforts.

“The whole province is starving for physicians,” Murray said. “If we lose her because of this … oh boy, tragic.”

Murray said another doctor working at the clinic who moved to B.C. wanted to come back to work there under the “Return of Service Program.” That allows Saskatchewan-trained doctors to work in certain areas where there’s high need in exchange for debt reduction.

The program doesn’t apply in Warman at this time, Murray said, and all efforts to make an exception for the doctor were turned down.

“For six months we tried to lobby the Ministry (of Health), our MLA, the City (of Warman), SHA, to have her included in this so she could practise. Complete resistance all the way, to the point that she went back to B.C. in January of this year,” he said. “We’re down one physician who wanted to be here.”

At this point, Murray said, it’s difficult for him to believe how sincere the provincial government really is about physician recruitment.

650 CKOM has contacted both the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health for comment.