Prince Albert child, youth psychiatric unit stops accepting patients

The only children and youth psychiatric unit in northern Saskatchewan has paused admissions.

That's according to a Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) memo obtained by the Saskatchewan NDP and shared with media.

The internal email says the unit in the Prince Albert Victoria Hospital stopped accepting patients as of August 18.

“This decision has been made due to significant shortages within the psychiatry team in Prince Albert,” the email says.

“The whole Northern half of Saskatchewan is without youth mental health beds,“ Carla Beck, leader of the Saskatchewan NDP told reporters on Tuesday.

The email notes ongoing struggles to recruit full-time child and youth psychiatrists.

“This is the third time that this has happened in the last three years, and we know this only because of a leaked internal SHA memo," Beck said.

The SHA hired a part-time child and youth psychiatrist in March and operated two of the ten beds in the unit.

When asked about the issue on Tuesday, newly-appointed health minister Everette Hindley said the health ministry has been working on the issue for months.

“There have been some positive developments in the past number of weeks, in terms of trying to recruit locum (temporary) coverage, but also providing some additional funding to the SHA, so they can hire a child psychiatrist in Prince Albert,” Hindley said.