Health-care services fully resumed in La Ronge, patients returned
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has now restored all its health-care services in the community of La Ronge, including the return of evacuated health centre patients and long-term care residents.
“The SHA acknowledges the impact the wildfires have had on the community of La Ronge and how important the restoration of health-care and wellbeing services are to returning residents,” said Julia Pemberton, Vice President of Integrated Northern Health for the SHA. “Hopefully having fully restored medical services will provide peace of mind for residents while coping with the aftermath of the evacuation and wildfire destruction.”
Evacuated acute care patients, who were medically stable, were safely transferred to the La Ronge Health Centre earlier this week, and the final long-term care residents and respite patients safely transported today.
All other SHA health-care services in the community have been restored, including health centre in-patient care, primary health care, and mental health and addictions services. The La Ronge Health Centre’s Emergency Services had resumed June 12, with La Ronge Ambulance services now fully operational. Local air transport capability is expected to be fully resumed by Saturday morning. The La Ronge Medical Clinic has also re-opened and is now booking medical appointments.
“It’s important to not only resume providing emergency and acute care services, but also primary care appointments for management of chronic conditions,” said Dr. Elliot Wilkinson SHA’s Division Lead for La Ronge, and one of the family physicians employed by Northern Medical services. “It was incredible to see how quickly everyone mobilized to get the health centre and the clinic ready to provide health services to our community to support people as they returned home. It took so many skilled and dedicated individuals to rise to the challenge.”
“We are so grateful to the SHA staff members who have tirelessly worked to restore service to the community, while they too were dealing with their own evacuation and emotional return to the community,” said Pemberton. “As health care delivery returns to normal, we want to thank the community and local Indigenous leadership for their support, both during the evacuation and our return. We also want to say thank-you to our many other partners, including the Canadian Red Cross, La Ronge Ambulance, Rise Air and many others who were instrumental in helping us resume services.”
Anyone needing medical assistance can call the La Ronge Medical Clinic at 306-425-2174 or dial HealthLine 811.
For emergencies, please call 9-1-1 or go to the emergency department.
