As of Tuesday a new cardiology clinic opened its doors and started to see patients. 

The South Saskatchewan Heart Clinic has planted its roots in the Friendly City and hopes to treat residents of Moose Jaw and those all around the bottom half of the province.

Dr. Jefferey Wilkinson is originally from the area and is happy to be back, especially since there's a need for cardiologists in our province. 

"On the Canadian Medical Association website there's a number of cardiologists per 100,000 people, and Saskatchewan has one of the lowest ratios of cardiologists to population in the country. The only places that have a lower number of cardiologists is P.E.I. and Manitoba," explained Dr. Wilkinson. "My discussions with some of the cardiologists in Saskatoon and Regina is that there was a need for another out-patient cardiologist to help look after patients in southern Saskatchewan. Because of the number of cardiologists per population we think that there was room for another person to help provide great care for people in southern Saskatchewan."

He noted that they are designing their clinic in a way that could be easier for the patient, as the South Saskatchewan Heart Clinic will soon have a lot of the testing equipment needed for diagnostics. 

"If a patient needs a special type of heart test called an echocardiogram we do that here, we also do 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitors, which, from the Canadian Hypertension guidelines is one of the best ways to measure a patient's blood pressure. We also do ECGs here and we're hoping to do stress tests and Holter monitors as well. Because we want to cater to people in southern Saskatchewan, we want it to be like a one-stop shop."

Dr. Wilkinson added that the physician community in Moose Jaw and area has been very welcoming so far, and he's very excited to work in the city he was trained in by Dr. Fred Wigmore while in Medical School at the University of Saskatchewan.