PROVINCE PROVIDES FUNDING TO RECRUIT SECOND RADIOLOGIST TO CYPRESS HEALTH REGION

Residents in the Cypress Health Region can look forward to the hiring of a second radiologist, thanks to additional resources from Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health.

"In partnership with health regions and the Saskatchewan Medical Association, our government has been working diligently to increase the number of doctors in our rural, northern and urban communities," Premier Brad Wall said. "I am optimistic that the added resources we're providing to the Cypress Health Region will help successfully recruit a second radiologist, thereby helping to bring stability and ensure the continued provision of the best possible health services to residents of Southwest Saskatchewan."

A radiologist could be hired as early as the spring. The Cypress Health Region is currently served by one radiologist and arrangements for temporary radiology services from other health regions need to be secured when the lone radiologist is ill or on vacation leave. Radiologists are physician specialists trained to interpret medical images created in radiology departments such as general radiology exams, CT and ultrasound images.

The addition of a second radiologist is just one of the initiatives being implemented to improve radiology services. It builds on a recent initiative introduced in Cypress Health Region last year to make health care faster, safer, better and more secure by using a new way to store and transmit digital imaging information, such as patient x-rays and CT scans used by radiologists and other authorized health providers.

The Cypress Regional Hospital, built to be filmless, is the first regional hospital in the province with the ability to use this new digital imaging system, known as Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). This hospital and the three hospitals in Saskatoon are the first participants in the provincial PACS.

Benefits for patients include:
• improved service in rural areas;
• decreased waiting times between tests and results;
• the elimination of X-ray film transport between locations; and
• enhanced patient safety.

By 2010 it is expected that 80 per cent of diagnostic images and reports across the province will be available online to authorized caregivers.

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For more information, contact:

Kathy Young
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0425
Email: kathy.young@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-526-8927

Bryce Martin
Cypress Health Region
Swift Current
Phone: 306-778-5117
Email: bryce.martin@cypressrha.ca