Regina clinic closure leaves 5,000 patients scrambling for new family doctors

REGINA — About 5,000 patients in Regina are now searching for a new family doctor after a clinic that received government money closed over the weekend.

The Gardens Community Health Centre, which offered a range of services for families, shut its doors Sunday because it couldn’t find physicians to work there.

It comes as people in Saskatchewan continue to struggle to secure a primary care provider due to ongoing doctor shortages.

Kate Malagride said Monday she attended the clinic when it opened in 2018. The 29-year-old was treated for her anxiety and worries she will struggle to find another doctor who can continue prescribing her medication, she said.

“It still helps me function to this day,” Malagride said. “Having that stability was really nice and now it’s just a little freaky knowing that I don’t know who to go to now.”

Vanessa Bourlon, 38, said she and her family relied on the clinic to help her two children who have autism.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, really,” she said. “(Our doctor), she has been with us for so long that she understands our whole history.”

Tammy Heland, 36, said her doctor at the clinic addressed her attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and celiac disease, which prevents her from eating gluten.

“This isn’t just an inconvenience for me, it’s catastrophic,” Heland said. “Not only do I have mental health problems, but I have to get medication every month and now I can’t even go to a simple walk-in clinic to get that.”

The clinic declined to comment on the closure.

In 2018, Premier Scott Moe’s government announced the centre was to receive millions of dollars in funding to strengthen community care and reduce emergency-room wait times.

The province did not provide a figure of total money it provided to the clinic.

Heland was a guest of the Opposition NDP in the legislature Monday. New Democrats have urged Moe since November to save the clinic from closing.

NDP health critic Meara Conway accused Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill of sitting on his hands.

“He heralded (the clinic) as the future of primary care in Saskatchewan,” Conway told the assembly.

“They’ve known about the risk of closure for months … because of their inaction, (5,000 people) woke up this morning without access to primary care.”

Cockrill said the province is addressing issues by hiring more doctors and signing contracts with nurse practitioners, who can offer similar services.

“I would encourage anyone in the city of Regina who is not attached currently to a primary care provider to seek that out, one of the many nurse practitioners that we now have available,” he told the assembly.

Conway said while she supports more nurse practitioners, it doesn’t cover the hole caused by the clinic’s closure.

“There is so much (the province) could have done,” she said.

Conway said the province could have compensated the doctors differently to entice them to stay. They also could have looked at hiring nurse practitioners to work at the clinic in the interim until finding a long-term solution, she said.

“They tried none of it. It’s not too late … will he do it?” she said.

Cockrill reiterated the province aims to recruit more doctors, specifically from other countries.

“This government is working to ensure that … every resident in this province has access to a primary care provider by the year 2028,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2025.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press