A provincial health program set up during the COVID pandemic to let Northern Ontario hospitals find temporary emergency room doctors is once again coming up against a closure deadline.
The Temporary Locum Program that was extended back in September is set to expire on March 31, 2024. While it might be concerning for some smaller rural communities, it is not expected to affect Sudbury's Health Sciences North.
The locum program provided additional funding to allow temporary emergency room doctors to step in at smaller community hospitals to keep the ER open at times when other physicians had to leave town for a few weeks or just to take a break.
Locums have become a fact of life throughout rural Ontario where hospitals would rely on out-of-town doctors to fill on vacant shifts that could not be filled by local doctors. The Temporary Locum Program would pay the premium to bring temporary doctors into town.
It is not an issue in Sudbury, said Jason Turnbull, the communications manager at Health Sciences North.
"This program is geared towards small hospitals in the north, not HSN, given we are the regional referral centre for the 23 hospitals in the Northeast," Turnbull said in an email.
"Our Emergency Department stays open 24/7.”
With the latest deadline just two weeks away, hospital leaders in several smaller communities are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that additional funding will be found.
Provincial health officials have said the province is likely to continue but as yet, nothing official has been announced.
