ESTEVAN — St. Joseph’s Hospital has been limited in the obstetrical services it can provide to the community.
In an email to the Mercury, Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) spokesman James Winkel said St. Joseph’s is currently able to provide patients with low-risk obstetrical services. Patients are assessed upon arrival, and if their delivery is deemed to not be low risk, they are transferred to an alternate hospital able to provide the required services.
“Low-risk deliveries would not include any surgical interventions, such as C-sections,” Winkel wrote.
The partial resumption of obstetrical services occurred last month. A disruption began in April due to what the SHA termed as staffing and recruitment challenges.
Winkel noted St. Joseph’s Hospital is also experiencing a temporary disruption of close-observational services due to ongoing staffing challenges.
“Close observational beds are for higher acuity patients who require increased level of staffing to manage and assess before determining if they require transfer to a higher level of care, such as ICU [intensive care unit] in a larger facility,” Winkel said.
The SHA continues to work towards a full resumption of all obstetrical and close observational services in Estevan.
A date for full obstetrical and close observational services to resume will be determined once the SHA is able to recruit additional qualified staff allowing us to provide safe and sustainable care.
“The SHA is constantly working on recruitment and retention initiatives to help address health workforce challenges. As part of the provincial government’s four-point Health Human Resources Action Plan to recruit, train, incentivize and retain over 1,000 more health-care workers in our province over the next few years, the SHA is committed to recruiting health-care workers from within the province, across Canada and internationally to help stabilize the health-care workforce and provide quality care to the residents of Saskatchewan,” Winkel said.
