(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Health Care

Lack of P.A. child psychiatrists forces closure of in-patient unit

Sep 3, 2020 | 6:15 PM

The lack of child psychiatrists in Prince Albert has forced the temporary closure of the Victoria Hospital’s 10-bed inpatient child psychiatry unit and prompted calls from the NDP for the provincial government to do more to address the shortage.

The Prince Albert Child and Youth Mental Health Inpatient Unit is home to one-third of Saskatchewan’s youth psychiatric beds, with two more 10-bed units in Regina and Saskatoon.

The P.A. unit stopped admitting patients in June after the city’s last remaining child psychiatrist retired. Just over half a year earlier, another P.A. child psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammad Zulfiquar Hussain, died of a heart attack at age 79.

Since June, youth from Prince Albert and the North in need of in-patient psychiatric care have been transferred to Saskatoon.

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Saskatoon child psychiatrist Dr. Tamara Hinz told paNOW during her two-week rotation on Saskatoon’s child psychiatry unit at the end of August, between 50 to 70 per cent of the patients she saw were from Prince Albert and the North.

Aside from putting further pressure on the already at-capacity ward, Hinz said treating patients so far away from home poses specific problems.

“It really leads to challenges for every part of their stay, right when they first arrive to when we’re trying to figure out plans for them to leave,” she explained.

Hinz said many children arrive in Saskatoon by ambulance. Arranging for transportation home again can be difficult and many families either don’t own a car or have commitments that prevent them from making the long trip to Saskatoon, she continued.

Call for government action

Prince Albert Northcote MLA Nicole Rancourt said the city has long suffered from a shortage of mental health services for youth and the closure of the in-patient unit is devesting for Prince Albert and the North.

“This is going to make things worse for children and youth to receive the services they desperately need,” she said.

For Rancourt, it’s evidence of the provincial government’s broader disregard for mental health and addictions issues.

“We know that Saskatchewan has a high rate of suicide and more so in this area of the province,” she said.

“We want to have a government that’s going to make this a priority and do whatever they need to do to make sure that these services are available, because the outcome of this is going to be devastating and it’s going to cost way more in the long run.”

Recruitment challenges

Meanwhile, Executive Director of Primary Care, Brett Enns said the Saskatchewan Health Authority is actively recruiting to fill four child psychiatrist positions in Prince Albert. That effort has been ongoing since the death of Dr. Hussain in November.

Enns explained difficulty attracting the specialists isn’t unique to Prince Albert.

“The subspecialty of child psychiatry, there is a global shortage,” Enns said. “Candidates are actively recruited from all over the world. In essence once they get that certification, they really truly have their choice of the world.”

To compete, the SHA is using a mixture of recruitment strategies, Enns said. Earlier this year a virtual conference was organized to sell the possibility of practicing in Prince Albert to graduating child psychiatry students from the University Saskatchewan. Contacts are also being made with candidates outside Canada, he explained.

Although he couldn’t give an estimate on when any of the P.A. positions would be able to filled, he said things were looking “hopeful.”

“We’re in active negotiations as we speak,” he said. “We’ve had really good conversations with a group of physicians.”

In the meantime, Enns said a variety of child and youth mental health services continue to be available in Prince Albert. Virtual and in-person clinics are being supported by three child psychiatrists from Saskatoon. A protocol is also in place to connect patients discharged from Saskatoon with local outpatient teams, he said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom