‘Keep the doors open’: As ERs close, doctor speaks out on the challenges of practising in rural Sask. – CBC

Some rural docs decide they’d be ‘happier, healthier and in a better financial state … moving anywhere else’

Jul 14, 2025

The senior lead physician of a Saskatchewan Medical Association program that provides help for rural doctors is speaking out on the challenges they face, after a number of temporary rural emergency room closures forced by a shortage of medical professionals in the province.

“We tend to get the feeling that from an emergency perspective … the importance is placed on just keeping the door open, not necessarily, you know, keeping the door open when we are adequately staffed,” Dr. Francois Reitz said in an interview Tuesday, as he was coming off a 24-hour emergency room shift.

Reitz works with the medical association’s rural relief program, which provides short-term locum relief to general and family doctors working in rural communities with fewer than five practising physicians.

The workload for health-care workers in rural areas has increased from when he first started with the program 20 years ago, he said, including greater demand from patients as health conditions have become more complex.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/doctor-speaks-challenges-rural-areas-1.7583577