A family doctor in Saskatoon has decided to leave the province and find work elsewhere, citing uncompetitive pay schedules, unorganized pooling of patient consultations and the walk-in clinic model as her main determining factors.

Dr. Isabelle Richard wrote a letter about her concerns, which has now made its rounds on social media and was even shared by the Saskatchewan Medical Association.

Dr. Jess Melle, president of the SMA’s family medicine section, says the letter outlines several well-known deficiencies in the current system, some of which the newly unveiled $10 million Innovation Fund aims to correct. The fund was announced on Tuesday by the provincial government.

“It will allow family physicians to put forward innovative ideas in helping build a team-based model. That might be adding other health care professionals to the team to help better care for their patients, to provide better access, and to provide more well-rounded care.”

He says currently, “family physicians are basically working in silos, working on their own, seeing their patients, dealing with their concerns and then making referrals.”

“With the Innovation Fund, the physicians put forward an expression of interest with their ideas of how they want to build their team. The SMA and the SHA and the Ministry of Health will work jointly together to help them figure out their plan, to develop the funding and to be there to support them in initiating this new model of care which is quite different from what is going on right now.”

Melle hopes this new model of care will attract and retain more healthcare workers to the province.