        Sun Country Health Region hosted a Community Leadership Network on Wednesday, Jan. 6, at the Kenosee Inn. The presentations involved the annual wall walk, information on long term care, suicide prevention, and violence intervention. This was followed by an open discussion with questions from the floor, involving individuals from Oxbow and Gainsborough who had a variety of concerns.
Wall walk
               The annual wall walk provides an update on SCHR’s annual strategic plan. The 2015/2016 plan began on April 1, 2015, and will conclude at the end of March this year. A new strategic plan will be introduced to complete their next goals.
               Currently SCHR has four projects on the go including Stopping Staff Injuries, which is in alignment with the Zero Injuries by 2020 in the health region. SCHR has been working to reduce the number of accepted Workers’ Compensation Board claims from the 2014/2015 year by 50 percent. Last year there were 146 claims, meaning they were hoping to keep it below 73 claims. However, by the end of December there were a total of 79, so progress has been made, but they are behind their target.
               The project, Stop-the-Line/Safety Alert System, is focused on ensuring staff and patients feel comfortable stopping the line to ask questions. With an increased culture of safety there have been an increase of 12 percent incidents caught.
               The Antimicrobial Stewardship project is focused on ensuring antibiotics and medications are being used appropriately. Dr. Dimitri Louvish, the VP of Medical, explained that they were on target with ensuring education amongst doctors, nurses, and physicians in Sun Country.
               The final project being worked on, Stop Infections, focuses on hand hygiene and high touch areas within health facilities. Proper washing of the hands and keeping high touch areas sanitized is important as germs can spread in health facilities if these practices aren’t being completed appropriately. By the end of February all employees within Sun Country will have been trained on proper hand hygiene.
Highlights of 2015
               Sun Country’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Marga Cugnet quickly reviewed highlights of 2015 with those attending. These intended the opening of the Kipling Integrated Health Centre, and two official ribbon cuttings in Radville and Kipling.
               An Ebola plan was developed in 2015 and it is now under control and spreading is being prevented through taking down travel history of patients. Additionally there is screening and tracking plans set up in emergency rooms.
               There was $500,000 set aside for the replacement of the Weyburn General Hospital.
               Sun Country has been having success in recruiting doctors to their region, but have found that retention is still something that needs to be focused on by the health region and the communities.
               Currently in Kipling there are three physicians, there are three in Arcola and one is leaving soon but Sun Country has lines on physicians for the two openings which will bring Arcola back up to four, Carlyle has two, and Fillmore recently lost a physician who had been in the community for many years. Sun Country is in the process of working out service in Fillmore once a week with a doctor travelling to the practice.
               Acute care reopened in Redvers and they currently have three physicians there. One just left, but Sun Country is excited that a local person who is completing medical training currently is possibly interested in coming in June.
               A challenge this year Cugnet explained was maintaining cooks within facilities, but there have been an increased number of job applications recently.
               The CT scanner at St. Joseph’s Hospital has been installed and SCHR is finalizing an agreement with a radiology group.
               Cataracts can now be removed at the Weyburn General Hospital, which was introduced to reduce travel and increase access for the elderly in the southeast.
               Additionally all health regions in Saskatchewan are now working together on payroll, administration, and group purchasing. This has greatly benefited office work and has centralized services such as linen services, will standardize labs and medical imaging across the province. This is projected to save $100 million over five years.
Presentations
               Speaking at the meeting was Leila McClarty the Director of Rural Nursing Service – West on Changes in Long Term Care, Theresa Girardin a Community Mental Health Nurse, and Marlene Salmers, Supervisor of Adult Community Services at Estevan Mental Health Clinic.
               More information on both of these topics will be available in next week’s Observer.
Discussion
               Following the presentations the floor was opened for questions, which involved expressions of displeasure by Oxbow and Gainsborough residents regarding services in the very southeast corner of the region.
               Concerns in Oxbow involved ambulance services and recruiting more paramedics as their services have been down a few times. These concerns were echoed in Gainsborough whose closest services are Carnduff and Oxbow, but if both Carnduff and Oxbow are down they have to wait longer periods for service.
               Oxbow also expressed disappointment in the new $1 per shift charge for parking for employees. Concerns arose particularly in that the money being collected would be going into a general fund and not staying in the area. Other issues surrounding the paid parking included the Oxbow facility not having enough parking for all employees who come in on a day shift which means they are paying for a service that isn’t always there for them according to one of the individuals voicing their concerns. Additionally it was brought up that home care workers who do not use the parking area at the hospital are also being charged the $1 per shift which those from Oxbow did not find fair.
               The individuals from Oxbow were also upset that items prioritized by Sun Country seemed to overlook those prioritized by Oxbow.
               In regards to Oxbow’s discontent Sun Country explained that the rural communities are not being neglected, Redvers’ acute care reopened and Kipling has a new facility. Sun Country representatives reiterated that they are handling a large territory with numerous facilities and are limited by funds in what they can all accomplish. SCHR also told those attending the meeting expressing their displeasure that Sun Country would consider placing a meeting closer to that corner of the region.
               Gainsborough residents would like more answers than they received from a meeting from Feb. 3, 2015. They were told that Sun Country will relook at the notes from the meeting and see if they are able to elaborate more on the situation.
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