A post yesterday from Biggar-Sask Valley MLA Randy Weekes shared that in addition to 24/7 emergency services being restored at the Biggar and District Health Centre, they are now officially re-opening five acute care beds in the local facility.

This is only possible thanks to the staff, including the four new registered nurses recently welcomed into the community.

MLA Randy WeekesThe above news was announced by Weekes yesterday through his Facebook page

This recent news only goes to show that the province's aggressive plan to recruit, train, incentivize and retain more health care workers is going well.

Health Minister Paul Merriman said he was pleased with the progress that has been made on each of the four pillars of the aggressive Health Human Resources Action Plan that will "invest over $60 million and add more than 1000 health professionals into the health system over the next few years to address current challenges, stabilize health services across the province and build a stronger, health care workforce.”

The Plan is showing solid progress on important initiatives currently noticed in the health sector such as staff recruitment. This is a critical part of the plan, and directly connected to providing safe, reliable and accessible services to Saskatchewan people. This includes acute and emergency care, things that have seen resumption across Saskatchewan much like the recent re-openings in Biggar.

Read the full release here, as you can see just how Saskatchewan is working towards their four goals being mentioned below:

via Saskatchewan.ca

Recruit

  • The Saskatchewan Health Authority has received over 3,500 applications for the positions the province is looking to recruit to from the Philippines.
  • Nearly 400 applications have been received following a call for Internationally Educated Health-care Professionals (IEHPs) from Saskatchewan and Canada who may qualify for future training or employment in the province, with nearly 30 applications received from Ukrainian newcomers including three physician candidates.
  • Four new health system navigators will come onboard in November to assist in the recruitment and retention of internationally educated health care workers.
  • Later this fall, provincial government officials will lead a health care recruitment mission to the Philippines to promote available work opportunities. This will include signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of the Philippines on the recruitment of Filipino health care professionals, as well as recruitment and hiring events for prospective candidates.
  • A traditional and social media campaign has begun in the Philippines. The largest media outlets have published news of Saskatchewans recruitment efforts and a Facebook post reached over 75,000 people in one day.

Train

  • As of September, 150 new training seats were introduced and successfully implemented, including:
    • 10 nurse practitioner training seats – five in the collaborative nurse practitioner program jointly delivered by Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the University of Regina and five in the University of Saskatchewan nurse practitioner program;
    • 124 registered nursing seats – 62 in the Saskatchewan Polytechnic/University of Regina collaborative program and 62 in the University of Saskatchewan program; and
    • 16 registered psychiatric nursing seats in the Saskatchewan Polytechnic program.
  • To support training and retaining physicians, residency seats at the College of Medicine have been expanded by eight for a total of 128.
  • The number of seats for the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program has increased to 45 seats.

Incentivize

  • Applications are now open for the new incentive program of up to $50,000 over three years for a return-of-service agreement to attract new employees to targeted positions in rural and remote areas which will benefit up to 115 new healthcare workers.
  • The Ministry of Health is seeing increased interest in the clinical placement bursary program, with 105 clinical bursaries approved this year, the highest number in more than four years.

Retain

  • The SHA recently completed the posting of 125 new, full-time, frontline health care positions and over 50 existing part-time positions which are being enhanced to full-time. These new and enhanced positions span 49 communities across the province. These opportunities have been promoted to thousands of professionals both within and outside of Saskatchewan on social media.
  • The SHA is developing new mentorship and additional peer-to-peer well-being and resiliency programming.
  • The SHA is continuing to work collaboratively with First Nations and Métis health to build engagement, with five sessions held in October.
  • The SHA committed to hire up to 450 Métis citizens over the next five years who have completed training with the Gabriel Dumont Institute health care program.
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