SIOUX LOOKOUT — Sioux Lookout council is creating a physician recruitment committee to address staff shortages at the Meno Ya Win Health Centre, as well as to provide dollars to help bring in four temporary doctors.
Council voted in favour of the resolution to establish the committee during a special council meeting on Wednesday.
Hospital officials had sent a letter to Sioux Lookout CAO Michelle Larose outlining some of the challenges and dangers if the facility has to temporarily close its emergency department.
"The [Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre emergency department] is a medium volume department with annual visits at around 23,000 per year. Average daily visits range from 40-60 total visits per 24 hours (including an average of 20 visits overnight)," the letter from hospital chief of staff Dr. Laurel Laakso and executive vice president Dean Osmond reads.
"In any 24-hour period, there are anywhere from two to four visits for critically acute and unstable patients requiring immediate attention/resuscitation.”
Osmond and Laakso also wrote that “reduced access to timely procedures will also result in poor health outcomes even in cases where the loss of life does not imminently result.”
Municipal clerk Brian MacKinnon confirmed that council unanimously approved the recommendation, which included the establishment of the committee as well as other assistance requested by the hospital leadership.
That assistance would fund housing for four locum doctors for three months. It would also include a travel allowance for each physician and fitness centre memberships.
The funding will be financed through the 2023 municipal operating budget.
The physician recruitment committee will operate under a strategic plan to find opportunities to recruit and retain physicians through the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre's emergency department initiatives and engage with healthcare partners in finding solutions to address the shortage of medical professionals in Sioux Lookout.
