By TERRY PUGH
Warman City Council is putting its collective weight behind an urgent request for the provincial government to build a primary health care facility in the community as soon as possible.
A letter to that effect sent to Health Minister Everett Hindley on September 9, was made public at a city council committee of the whole meeting on Monday, September 16.
The letter was signed by Warman Mayor Gary Philipchuk, Deputy Mayor Kevin Tooley, Councillor Marshall Seed, Councillor Richard Beck, Councillor Doug Ramage, Councillor Tracy Johnson and Councillor Shaun Cripps.
A copy of the letter was forwarded to Martensville-Warman MLA Terry Jenson on September 9. Jenson currently serves as the Minister Responsible for Sask Builds and Procurement.
The letter marks the latest round in a decade-long series of communications between the city and the province on improving access to health care services for area residents. The most recent meeting between Mayor Philipchuk, Councillor Doug Ramage, City Manager Marty Baroni and the Minister Hindley took place on September 3, about a week prior to the letter being sent.
In the letter, the city is “formally requesting that the necessary funding, understood to be in the range of $500,000, for the planning stage of a future health care facility be included in the 2025 provincial budget.”
Allocating funding for the planning process would allow for a needs assessment to determine the size of the facility and the services to be offered, as well as expected staffing levels. It would also provide the necessary provincial support for the city to initiate budgeting for the municipal portion of the facility.
The letter cites several factors behind the city’s urgent request, including:
* Warman’s rapid population growth over the past decade (the Ministry of Health estimates the city’s current population at 13,686);
* The growing number of people that have to travel to Saskatoon for urgent health care services or to access a family physician;
* The ambiguity of the city’s rural/urban status that prevents ‘Return of Service’ and other incentives for recruiting physicians;
* Periodic delays in ambulance response times at peak times due to ambulance commitments in Saskatoon;
* The pressing need for a facility capable of accommodating future needs of Warman and the overall region north of Saskatoon.
“When it comes to health care in Warman, the city is now definitely in a ‘where do we go from here?’ position,” stated the letter. “Our residents currently must go to Saskatoon for urgent, specialized or after-hours care.
“Warman proudly has the third largest hockey program in the province and plays host to several large hockey tournaments every year. If a severe injury should occur to a player, any delay in getting that player to a facility for proper treatment could be critical. During these hockey tournaments, and the cheerleading competitions, and the volleyball tournaments, the population of Warman often grows by 50% (participants and spectators). Warman is not where we should be in providing proper urgent health care for the citizens of the city, and we definitely are not equipped to provide such care when our population jumps by over 6,800 people on a tournament weekend.”
The letter points out that as far back as 2016, a proposal was put forward for a nurse practitioner-led clinic that would include an educational component for the University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing. That proposal was shelved at the time, but city officials say it should be re-examined.
“From 2019 to 2021, the City of Warman was working with Avatex Developments to propose a Primary Care Centre in our community,” stated the letter. “We were disappointed to hear from both the Saskatchewan Health Authority and Ministry that a facility of that type for Warman was not supported at that time. Through 2021 and 2022, concerns from local clinics regarding the difficulty in recruiting doctors were being brought to the attention of City Council.
“After visiting the legislative building in 2022 during the presentation of the petition brought forward by the doctors in Warman and Martensville, and meeting with you, Premier Moe, Minister Merriman and Minister Jenson (MLA at the time), we began meetings with Minister Merriman to discuss the practical solutions to addressing improvements to health care service delivery in the City of Warman.”
That meeting in 2022 with the Minister of Health eventually led to the introduction of nurse practitioners in Warman’s Gamma medical clinic in the summer of 2023. While that development has mitigated the situation, there are still many gaps in health care services in the community.
“Warman City Council and the City of Warman believe that it is important to tell our story through a data-driven initiative,” concludes the letter. “We formally request the Ministry of Heath to invest in the 2025 budget to conduct the necessary facility planning in order to determine the size and scope of services to be housed in the City of Warman. This model, whether it be in an existing model, a hybrid model or something new, ensures that it fits the needs and objectives of the Ministry of Health and Saskatchewan Health Authority.”