A town hall meeting was held July 20 at the Legion Hall to discuss the future of the Preeceville Hospital.
The Preeceville and District Health Focus Group hosted the meeting which drew a crowd of roughly 200 people, said Stacey Strykowski.
Focus group committee members include Jennifer Bayer (Sturgis); Brad Romanchuk (Endeavour); Lorne Olynyk (RM of Buchanan); Welma Bartel (Preeceville); James Bodnar (RM of Preeceville); Stacey Strykowski and Tammy Pantiuk (Preeceville); Mark Bourassa (Town of Preeceville) and Darin Newton (Town of Preeceville).
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 James Bodnar, chair, welcomed everyone and gave thanks to the staff of the Preeceville Hospital and long term care.
鈥淭hey are in a tough spot,鈥� Bodnar said. 鈥淭hey work in this facility. They know us as friends and family before they know us as patients. They have fear for their job, not only by speaking up, but by sitting back and watching everything unfold.
鈥淲e must applaud them and thank them for their dedication to our facility and to our community,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey are even more confused and frustrated than the rest of us because not only is their health care at stake, but also their jobs. We want them all to know our community appreciates them and continues to support them.鈥�
Trent Wotherspoon, official leader of the opposition in the Saskatchewan Legislature, attended the meeting and spoke about health care in the province. He vowed to take the issue to the floor of the legislature again to get answers.
Stacey Strykowski gave a timeline presentation of what the group has done so far and what has been accomplished. She also noted that the two barbecue sales and ice cream sale at Western Weekend brought in roughly $5,500 to be used for recruitment and retention of physicians.
Brad Romanchuk shared the answers to the questions the group presented to Sunrise Health Region on June 29 at the board meeting.
The main question was: 鈥淎s of October, we will have four practitioners in our facility so when will ER and acute services be restored?鈥� The answer was not one they had hoped to hear. They advised it was up to the doctors whether they wanted to work on call and emergency or just extended hours.
The floor was then opened up for questions from the public.
The feedback from this town hall meeting was very positive, Strykowski said.聽 鈥淭he focus group continues to let the community know what is happening and all steps taken to ensure we will have services restored.鈥�
Greg Ottenbreit, the rural and remote health minister, and Terry Dennis, the Canora-Pelly MLA, Dennis were both invited to attend and both declined the offer.
鈥淭he meeting鈥檚 focus was to keep the public informed on the situation and the movements made to fix the issue,鈥� said Strykowski. 鈥淭he public may think that nothing is being done but in fact we are moving forward with a lot of work being done behind the scenes.
鈥淚t is our number one priority, unlike the viewpoint of the government or health region,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e want to start recruiting our own doctors. We currently have two physicians and a nurse practitioner during the weekday, but we still cannot offer emergency services during those hours. The focus group is looking into and hoping to rectify that situation.
鈥淭he focus group encourages people to utilize our facility to its fullest,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have a minimum of three practitioners in the clinic at all times and the wait times to see someone are drastically reduced.
鈥淚f we give up because we are angry, the statistics show significant reduction in the need and then that works against us,鈥� she said.
