Cypress Health Region 1

Maintaining healthcare has been a challenge in many southwest communities, but there were signs of stability in 2013.

Late in the year, a new Collaborative Emergency Centre opened at the Shaunavon Hospital and Care Centre, which provides extended hours of primary health care between 8:00am and 8:00pm daily, and the assurance that 24-hour emergency service will be available every day with a team of three physicians.

In Maple Creek, the future of healthcare looks bright in that community with continued progress on construction at the new Southwest Integrated Healthcare Facility set to open in the new year.

But Swift Current was faced with some challenges with Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. Senyo Tagboto announcing he was leaving in February, saying he was working one of every two on-call shifts. The news sparked a public call to the Cypress Health Region to convince him to stay.

"Our plan is to have four full-time internal medicine specialists who participate in the on-call schedule, so the on-call is no more than one-in-four, or one-in-three when one of them goes away," said Senior Medical Officer Dr. Ivo Radevski. "We feel that we can support four full-time internal medicine specialists."

Tagboto agreed to stay on at that time, but did wind up leaving the Health Region in the summer.