Fort Qu’appelle residents who fall ill or suffer injuries that don’t require an emergency room visit now have a new primary care centre they can go to for treatment.
“It is an exciting milestone for the organization, the complete construction and operation of a new primary care clinic,” said Kendra Filteau, who is the director for acute and clinical Services at All Nations Healing Hospital.
The new primary care centre is called Eagles Nest Primary Healthcare Clinic and opened on October 6th. It’s located directly across from the hospital and was built in response to the high number of emergency room patients. While the centre is not directly part of the hospital, it is an entity of the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council (FHQ) and will work in conjunction with the hospital.
“Less urgent patients could be diverted away from an emergency department to a primary care setting, and that’s the intent of this clinic, is those who require this care can be referred, and it’s just across the parking lot,” said Filteau.
The hospital’s capacity is 14 in-patient beds (13 at the moment pending renovation) and six emergency treatment rooms. Filteau stated that although they have capacity for up to 14 in patients, they usually only have ten patients on average. It’s a different story in the emergency room however, as the hospital sees just under 900 ER patients a month.
“We can’t control or predict that (ER) volume that comes in needing care so there can be times where that capacity exceeds the treatment spaces available,” said Filteau.
While Eagles Nest should help deal with the high emergency room numbers, the centre only has one working physician at the moment, and is open from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM Monday-Friday, due to lack of staff, which is an issue across the healthcare industry.
“All across the sector, they’re struggling with recruitment and retention for healthcare, and that impacts us locally for sure,” said Filteau.
The hospital, which first opened in 2004 is situated on Treaty Four territory. It’s owned and operated by the FHQ, which is made up of 11 First Nations communities. While the hospital has operating agreements with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, and a transfer agreement through Health Canada, they are considered an affiliate to the Provincial health system.
“We have a lot of independence in our governance, in our funding model and in the services that we provide to the community,” said Filteau.
Another entity of the FHQ tribal council is the White Raven Healing centre, which is located directly within the hospital. Jarrell Thomson is a cultural practitioner at White Raven and he explained what the purpose of the Centre is.
“We’re there to support the communities, not just the First Nations that we serve but all who come through there (White Raven) whether it’s through addictions counseling, mental wellness therapists, we also have the cultural component with it,” said Thomson.
Randall Lavallee is a cultural practitioner who works in the Culture department at All Nations Healing Hospital, where he offers support to First Nations clients and patients, and people who are looking for traditional support like medicines, healing and counselling. He noted that the help is not just restricted to First Nations and the door is open to everyone.
“The goal of the hospital is to have that holistic healing, so it’s to blend western medicine and traditional medicines,” said Lavallee.
Lavallee said that from the moment staff are hired they are taught that First Nations traditional culture is incorporated into the hospital. He also said that it’s not about traditional medicine being better than western medicine or vice versa, rather it’s about the option to choose or even use both.
“If we have anything that can help, we’ll use it to work alongside western medicine. Use what you got.” said Lavallee.
