Physician leaders continue annual tour in northwestern Sask
Dr. Intheran Pillay, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, and Dr. Joanne Sivertson, vice-president of the association, will meet with physicians from the Keewatin Yatthe Regional Medical Association (Ile-a-la-Crosse and La Loche, Sask.) Friday to discuss health-care redesign and other topics related to the provision of health care.
The meeting is one of 12 stops as the SMA president and the vice-president tour the province to hear from local physicians. The annual president/vice-president tour is a tradition of the SMA, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016. Drs. Pillay and Sivertson will share the responsibilities of the tour with one or the other, and sometimes both, attending meetings.
“These meetings are an opportunity for us to hear directly from local physicians about their concerns. We are here to listen and to learn what is working and what can be improved in Keewatin Yatthe Health Region and throughout Saskatchewan,” said Dr. Pillay, a family physician in Gravelbourg.
Drs. Pillay and Sivertson expect to hear from the physicians about the difficulties they and their patients face in accessing appropriate health-care services. But the challenges in the North go beyond the day-to-day provision of health care.
The shootings last winter in La Loche and the more recent suicides of children in Stanley Mission, La Ronge and Deschambeault Lake are stark reminders that there are no simple answers to improving the health and well-being of people living in northern Saskatchewan, say the physicians.