Dr. Allison Adamus of Martensville Collective Health and Wellness has spent years fighting to bring health services and doctors to the communities of Martensville and Warman. Last week, Adamus, along with Dr. Smit of Legends Medical Clinic and Dr. Okunola visited the Saskatchewan Legislature as a guest of the NDP to present a petition bringing awareness to the need for these services.
Adamus has been working with NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat for the past year discussing the eight year long struggle to bring doctors into the communities and was invited to the Legislature as Mowat’s guest to present the petition.
“We were excited to bring her 1496 signatures and even more proud to let her know that our communities rallied and accomplished this in one week,” Adamus stated.
While there, the doctors met with Premier Scott Moe, Ministers of Health and MLA Terry Jenson. “I was honoured to sit at a table with these leaders, my colleagues, and our city councilors as we brainstormed together unique solutions to our unique troubles,” said Adamus.
The close proximity of Martensville and Warman to Saskatoon is both a blessing and a curse in this situation, as there are health services nearby within Saskatoon; however, that isn’t always accessible for everyone. With a collective population of approximately 25,000 residents between Martensville and Warman, the two communities are in dire need of more physicians as they also serve residents in surrounding communities as well. The petition brought to legislature also noted that cities within similar populations often have double the number of doctors, along with at least one publicly funded health centre.
One item that Adamus has been working towards changing for years was also brought forward, which is to have Martensville and Warman removed from the list of excluded communities on all return of service agreements, which would make it possible for more doctors to serve within the communities.
Recently, MCHW had to shut down their walk-in option to the public due a shortage of doctors within the clinic, as two of the doctors currently working there will be leaving by the end of this month, leaving them with 2 full-time physicians and one part-time physician to serve approximately 12,000 residents.
Following the visit to Regina, Adamus noted that she left feeling hopeful. “In our 90 minutes together as a group, I felt that every one of those minutes was spent moving forward and I await with great expectation the things to come from our upcoming meetings as we each left with a task in hand.”
