By Chris Jaster
Leader may have three doctors sooner than expected.
The Cypress Health Region was approached by a doctor from a community in rural Saskatchewan who is interested in taking up the last, vacant family physician position in the community.
“We are into the preliminary discussions with the physician,” said Beth Vachon, the Cypress Health Region’s interim CEO, at the health authority’s meeting in Leader on Aug. 11. “You always have to explore what it is they’re looking for and why they’re leaving the community they are in and how do we offer the best environment for them to practise in?
“We’re really just in those early stages of discussion, but it’s always exciting when a physician phones us and says ‘I might be interested in one of the communities that is available in your region.’”
Vachon would not identify the doctor’s name or the community he is currently in, but the doctor in question is fully licensed, which means he could hit the ground running should he come to Leader.
Leader has been down to one physician, Dr. Monga-N’Dimo Palangi, after two doctors left the community May 31. The hospital has not been taking patients since then and Palangi and Mikki Millar, a nurse practitioner, have been seeing patients by appointment only.
As exciting as the news of a potential new doctor is, the health region is getting more concerned about the arrival of Dr. Mohd.Enanul Hoque in Leader. Vachon believes he is still stuck in immigration, as he has not yet arrived in southwest Saskatchewan, and that could create a massive delay before he is able to become fully certified to practise medicine in Saskatchewan.
As an internationally medically-trained physician, Hoque will have to participate in the Clinicians’ Assessment and Professional Enhancement (CAPE) exam before he is given a licence to practise independently.
Every doctor in Saskatchewan who has taken the exam has had some remedial work, and Vachon fears the amount of work he would need if he is forced to take the CAPE exam within a month of arriving in Canada.
“The expectation of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan is the physician does the next available (CAPE exam sitting), so if they arrive in September, they would have to sit the October,” said Vachon. “Our hope was he would be here in the summer and have enough time to do the prep work for the October sitting.… I would hate for him to arrive in the end of September and have him be writing two weeks later. That would be unfortunate.”
The health region’s struggles to have three fully-licensed physicians, however, won’t stop it from being a place to educate medical students.
The region received a request from a student studying to become a nurse practitioner in Saskatoon to do a practicum in Leader under the guidance of Millar.
Vachon stressed the student will not be an added resource for the community.
“NPs can provide a lot of services in the community, but it takes that licensed nurse practitioner’s time to mentor and teach her,” said Vachon. “I don’t want to think of that as ‘added resources’. It’s more of a learning opportunity for a student.”
There is one more medical professional coming soon to help Leader. Shannon Chernoff, a nurse practitioner hired on a temporary basis, is currently going through her orientation with the health region and will start working in Leader shortly. Chernoff will practise in Leader until a third doctor arrives in the community.