Saskatchewan establishes advisory committee to explore primary‑care patient registry

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health has set up an advisory committee to improve access to primary care in the province. One of the proposals under review is a patient‑attachment registry that would match residents who do not have a regular family doctor with available physicians.

About one in six Saskatchewan residents currently lack a family physician, a gap described by Dr. Darcie McGonigle, president of the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians, as “fairly significant.” Dr. McGonigle is a member of the new committee, which was formed after the college’s petition to gauge the scale of the problem. The registry would feature two components – a patient list and a provider list – to centralise information, reduce the burden on patients and doctors, and alleviate the emotional toll of prolonged searches for primary‑care providers.