Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is well aware of the staff recruitment and retention issues that exist at St. Joseph's Hospital in Estevan.

But the premier, who visited south east Saskatchewan last week, said it's a problem that resonates right across the province and the country as well.

"This is not a Saskatchewan problem, it's not an Estevan problem...it's a Canadian problem with physicians and quite frankly some other healthcare staff that do move around," Moe said. "The interim solution is to keep them coming."

Moe said there were several recruiting initiatives put in place about a decade ago, but that officials may have taken their eye of the ball in recent years.

"I would say, in fairness, the last three or four years we've maybe taken our eye off on how we've been focusing on the various incentives that have been there, ensuring that our rural locum physician pool is up and operating and being effective," Moe said. "We need to re-focus, not only on physician recruitment and retention, but re-focus on the entire suite of healthcare professionals that we have in our communities."

The premier added that removing saskdocs from the Saskatchewan Health Authority and bringing it back into the ministry of health will help with recruiting and retaining all healthcare professionals.

He said Saskatchewan residents can expect to hear from the province's health ministers in early September regarding a plan to recruit healthcare professionals to Saskatchewan, including rural communities.

"Closing facilities when you run into staffing shortages is not on," Moe said. "This is a government that is committed to keeping all of our rural facilities open."