Murray Wood: Community spirit alive and well in small-town Saskatchewan
Murray Wood says he's noted a decline in community spirit in some parts of the province recently, but a train ride betwe...
Patients at the Gardens Medical Clinic, run by The Gardens Community Health Centre, have two months to find a new family doctor.
The clinic is shutting down at the end of November because it can’t find doctors to work there.
There are two doctors who work at the clinic now and are getting ready to retire, who share 5,000 patients.
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The clinic said it needs at least a couple more doctors to share the load – two left in the last while. The clinic said doctors stay here long enough to do their Return of Service (ROS) and then they move on. It’s had postings out for family doctors since January.
The health centre recently sent a letter to patients, letting them know this was happening and giving them next steps for what to do. Among them, were reaching out to the health authority or the College of Physicians and Surgeons for help in finding a new family doctor.
In 2018, this clinic opened to a measure of fanfare from the provincial government for offering seniors a one-stop shop type of care with a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach.
The clinic got $4.3 million in the 2018-19 provincial budget, and was to get $3.0 million in annual funding to support it and the expansion of the Seniors House Call Team, which was to provide at-home care to the clinic’s clients and others in Regina with mobility problems and complex needs.
980 CJME has reached out to the Sask. Health Authority (SHA) and the provincial government about the funding and whether the house call team will continue, but neither responded by publication time.
NDP Rural and Remote Health Critic Jared Clarke. Oct. 1, 2025. (980 CJME file photo)
The Sask. NDP’s rural and remote health critic Jared Clarke, called for the government and SHA to do everything in their power to make sure the clinic stays open.
“SHA should be looking at any option to make sure that the thousands of patients here don’t lose their family doctor,” said Clarke.
He said there are already thousands of people in Saskatchewan who don’t have a family doctor, and those who do have one say it’s taking longer and longer to get an appointment. Losing these doctors will mean more people having to use urgent care centres or ERs, according to Clarke.
Clarke said what’s happening at this clinic is a symptom of what’s happening across Saskatchewan’s health-care system, that more and more doctors and other health-care workers are leaving.
“It’s the disrespect, the chaos that is in our health-care system, the fact that it’s breaking in front of their eyes,” said Clarke.
He said the Sask. Party government needs to better in listening to health-care workers and implementing their ideas for change, and to reset the relationship.
