By Joel van der Veen

ROSETOWN — Keeping a balanced budget while maintaining a standard of primary health care will be a challenge going forward for Heartland Health Region, its CEO said last week.

Greg Cummings said regions across the province are aiming to “bend the cost curve,” explaining, “It’s not to reduce the cost of health care in the province, it’s to reduce the rate at which the cost of health care is increasing.”

The regional health authority approved its budget and operational plan for the 2015-16 fiscal year at a meeting in Rosetown on June 5. The operating budget itself totals $105 million; including a capital transfer of $648,000, the grand total comes to $105.7 million.

While the region ended the last fiscal year with a minor surplus, Cummings said that balancing the budget this year was a challenge.

The budget saw an overall increase of 1.6 per cent or $1,424,000, which represented collective bargaining increases, physician remuneration, and the purposeful rounding initiative for long-term care, which entails responding to residents’ needs within a set amount of time.

To balance the budget, the region must find around $1.5 million in savings and efficiencies, according to a news release issued by Heartland.

Cummings said the region’s goal for Davidson and area is to keep the hospital and emergency services operational as it continues to develop its primary care model.

“We will spend what we have to, to support that model,” he told the Leader on Wednesday. “We build our budget from the ground up.”

Davidson is currently served by two full-time doctors, Dr. Lang and Dr. Ola, both of whom are on the emergency room call rotation for Davidson Health Centre.

The Heartland and Five Hills health regions announced in an update on Wednesday that two additional doctors would join that rotation between now and early 2016.

Dr. Modupe Olufunmilayo Arowolo, a general practitioner currently living in Calgary, has accepted a posting to serve the Craik-Davidson corridor.

She will primarily serve Craik, providing the town with physician services four days a week as part of the primary health care team at Craik Health Centre, but will also join the ER call rotation in Davidson.

Dr. Arowolo entered the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program in May. The region said she is expected to be ready to practise by the end of September.

A fourth physician is expected to join the collaborative in early 2016. Dr. Kayode Emmanuel Bamigboje, or simply Dr. Kay — known to some Davidson residents as the husband of Dr. Ola — is scheduled to enter the SIPPA program in September, and will join the ER call rotation next year.

In the meantime, the regions have secured a locum physician from Regina, Dr. Anne Lillian Kavulu, who has been hired on a short-term contract to serve Craik and Davidson between July 27 and Oct. 30.

Dr. Kavulu is scheduled to tour the Craik and Davidson health centres soon. She will work primarily from Craik but will also be part of Davidson’s ER call rotation during her short-term stay, according to the regions.

Cummings said the doctors will determine amongst themselves how the schedule is divided up, explaining, “They make the decision about how they’re going to make the rotation work.”

Without multiple doctors available, he said, it has been impossible to provide round-the-clock service at the Davidson hospital.

This effected not only Davidson and district residents, but others travelling through the area who required emergency services but would arrive at the hospital to find none were available.

“We want to reassure the public that if they go there, that it’ll be open,” said Cummings, adding that the matter of health care will continue to be an “ongoing discussion.”

“Like all discussions on health care, there’s a high emotional component to it,” he said, noting that as the new doctors arrive, “I think it’ll be less emotional, and we’ll be able to talk more about better providing the services to meet the needs of the community, instead of being in crisis mode.”

For the complete story, please see the June 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader, or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe.