‘Had to make a change:’ Moose Jaw doctor on opting out of public health care system

A Moose Jaw cardiologist opted out of the province’s public health-care system last month.

Dr. Jeff Wilkinson of Moose Jaw’s South Saskatchewan Heart Clinic told Gormley the reason for the decision.

Wilkinson said the clinic caters to the people of Moose Jaw as well as people from southern Saskatchewan. However, over the last five years, Wilkinson says the clinic has come under a lot of financial pressure.

“As a result of the low rates of reimbursement from the government at the present time, we found it very difficult to attract and retain high-quality staff that have all the training required to provide the services that our office does,” he said.

“In viewing how to move forward, we felt that the rates of reimbursement were low enough that it was difficult. And the second thing that we looked at, which is a really important component of this, is whether or not there was demand in the system for patients that were frustrated with long wait times.”

The clinic has been in operation since 2018.

Wilkinson said the normal way this situation is handled is by physicians leaving the province.

“That is the way Saskatchewan people, specifically physicians, have managed the situation,” he said. “You just go to the United States or you go to Alberta. And actually, I love where I live. I love Moose Jaw.

“I love the people that I look after and I think that it is critically important for us to realize that we love where we live and we don’t feel like we should have to move because the Government of Saskatchewan doesn’t want to be a partner in health care.”

Wilkinson said this process started in January and snowballed from there.

He said the clinic met with its local MLA through an “orderly political process” as well as working through the Saskatchewan Medical Association.

“Truthfully, since I’m from here, I believe in public medicare. I believe in a single-payer system that we all pay into and that we can get good quality health-care services, since we all pool our resources and work together. That’s the Saskatchewan way …,” he said.

“Internally, I have had a lot of angst because I grew up believing that, but right now we are facing such a challenge in health care and we were faced with such difficult decisions that I have to put my patients first. I have to put the quality of our service that we provide to people first.

“One of the other ways that you manage the situation is you just see people faster, hand-on-the-door medicine, and you just move people through on a conveyor belt. As a doctor from this province, I don’t feel that that’s the right way to go forward, that you should not be seeing patients more quickly just to make an extra dollar.

“You need to spend time with people. You need to give them the care and attention that they deserve and need and so when faced with a patient in front of me, I can’t make that compromise and compromise the care that I provide to my patients. I had to make a change. I was forced to make the change.”

Wilkinson said the clinic has been operating for about four weeks so far since opting out and it’s yet to be seen if it’s a viable business model.

He said many patients had been made aware about the opt-out before it happened and many of them stayed afterwards.

“If a patient is unable to continue seeing us for financial reasons, for instance, we make a referral to another cardiologist or encourage them to follow up with their family doctor. We are trying to make sure that their heart care is seamless,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said a visit to the clinic would cost $350.

On Friday, the province announced a one-time payment of $20 million in funding towards “community-based fee-for-service family physicians in Saskatchewan”.