The provincial government is continuing its investment in their rural physician locum pool, which was started last May to provide health regions with temporary physicians to help offset disruptions and fill in for regular doctors who are away from their practise.
"We've increased the amount of funding to a total of $3 million, and that's a $1.5 million increase from last year," said Randy Weekes, the Minister Responsible for Rural and Remote Health. "The locum pool has been very popular to help deal with service disruptions."
Since its inception, the locum pool has helped stabilize physician services in a number of Saskatchewan communities, including Shaunavon, Leader and Maple Creek in the Cypress Health Region, and Weekes notes that many physicians like being part of the pool.
"I've spoken to a few of them, they get experience working in rural communities and dealing with all sorts of health issues, and it fits well with many physicians," he added.
At present, 17 physicians make up the locum pool, and Weekes says the extra funding will help the government fulfill their four-year commitment of a 22-physician pool, which translates to two locums per health region, and two for the north.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 2000 physicians were working in Saskatchewan as of March 2013.
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