NDP questions recruiting for new children’s hospital

REGINA The Saskatchewan NDP is raising concerns over the province’s ability to recruit enough staff for the soon-to-open Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon.

NDP Leader Ryan Meili said the province has “nowhere near the numbers that are needed for the current, let alone once we open a children’s hospital.”

A report commissioned by the Ministry of Health shows Saskatchewan has 4.5 per cent fewer medical specialists than the national average. It also shows approximately 28 general pediatricians and 42 pediatric physicians (who have more specialized training) will be needed to meet the expected demand in the province by 2022-23.

The province aims to have 70 pediatricians in more than 20 specialties on staff for the children’s hospital, set to open in the autumn of 2019, but the NDP is questioning if even that would be enough.

Health Minister Jim Reiter says 52 of the 70 doctors are already recruited. He expressed no concern

It’s telling people we’re going to be short in recruitment, we won’t be opening in time, and that’s just simply not the case.

that the province’s recruiting has slowed — only two pediatricians have been hired for the new hospital in roughly the past year.

Reiter said he is “comfortable with recruitment.” He criticized the NDP for making a political situation out of the recruitment process.

“It’s almost a bit of fearmongering. It’s telling people we’re going to be short in recruitment, we won’t be opening in time,” he said. “And that’s just simply not the case.”

Meili says the issue isn’t just recruitment, and there are people available for hire who “aren’t being offered those positions” because the province is “not making the positions available.”

Earlier this month, Dr. Laurentiu Givelichian, the head of pediatrics for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said there are offers out to two more pediatric specialists and the province is “on target” to have a full complement of pediatricians by the end of 2019.