By Angela Hill

Shellbrook Hospital reopens full time

Oct 28, 2010 | 8:17 AM

The emergency department at Shellbrook Hospital is back open all the time.

“As of next Tuesday and Wednesday there will be full coverage,” said Doug Dahl, communications officer for the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region.

For a little longer than a month the emergency room at Shellbrook Hospital was closed as physicians working there prepared for their licensing exams.

Until recently, internationally trained physicians were required to travel to Winnipeg to take a multi-day exam, which required a lot of studying and preparation.

Four out of five of the on-call doctors were taking exams during October, which forced the two-night-per-week closure.

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Now, all the exams are complete and service no longer disrupted.

There is some additional good news for the community, said Dahl.

“One of the things that has happened in the meantime is we have been able to recruit a physician to work in the community for six months. He just arrived in the region this week,” he said.

While service was stopped between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, people were faced with either having to go Prince Albert or wait until the next day to get medical attention.

“It’s something where we really do appreciate the community’s understanding and support of the physicians as they go through this period where they were writing the exams,” Dahl said.

He said the region is continuing to work to put plans in place to prevent future closures.

“Over the next several months we’ll talking to the physicians and working with the community to try and ensure that the acute care services including emergency services are stabilized in Shellbrook,” he said.
 

ahill@rawlco.com