Grandview ER now closed on weekends

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This article was published 11/07/2022 (1324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prairie Mountain Health continues to roll back rural emergency department availability for the summer season, with the latest big change impacting the Municipality of Grandview.

As of last Friday, the Grandview Health Centre’s emergency department services are no longer available over the weekend, although the local ER will remain open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday to Friday.

These hours will stay in place throughout the rest of July and August, according to an update on PMH’s official Facebook page.

Grandview residents requiring emergency care over the weekend are encouraged to call 911 or 204-546-2425 to determine the nearest open ER.

The change at the Grandview Health Centre is due to “staffing issues,” according to PMH, which is the same rationale the health authority has used to reduce emergency department hours in rural communities such as Melita, Hamiota and Treherne.

Talking to the Sun on Monday, Grandview Mayor Dwayne Bomak said his local government has been working with PMH to make the transition as bearable as possible, striking a deal that ensures the emergency department located in nearby Roblin will remain open throughout the weekend.

However, Bomak admitted the closure of Grandview’s ER over the upcoming summer weekends, and with no 24-hour ER services available throughout the rest of the week, will be a “hardship for the community,” especially for those suffering from serious health issues.

“Now anybody, after hours, has to travel to the nearest hospital at Dauphin or Roblin, which is a 30- to 45-minute drive one way for them,” he said. “And if you were suffering from a massive heart attack, that’s a big distance to travel.”

But the closure of the Grandview ER over the weekends didn’t come as a surprise to Bomak, since the local hospital has been struggling to fill staffing vacancies for months now, causing emergency services to shutter periodically throughout the summer.

Even though Bomak insists the community offers an attractive incentive program to recruit health-care workers — which includes a signing bonus of $20,000 split over two years for any registered nurse who signs a two-year, full-time contract — recruitment and retention remains a massive problem.

“I’ve personally called several of the universities and colleges that have nursing programs and tried to get information passed out to their graduating classes to say ‘This is who we are and this is what we’re offering,’” he said. “I’ve had a few phone calls, but not a lot has materialized from that.”

This issue was also addressed during a July 5 town hall meeting in Melita, where staffing shortages in the area compelled PMH officials to close the town’s emergency department in its entirety for summer.

During the meeting, PMH chief executive officer Brian Schoonbaert told the crowd that his organization is exploring several different solutions to help the Melita ER reopen.

“We may have to come up with a very different model than what we have now,” he said on July 5. “What that is, I’m not sure yet, and it won’t be ready by September. We have to go back to government with our plans to see about funding and feasibility.”

To Bomak, the ongoing staffing shortage can be laid directly at the feet of the provincial government, which hasn’t made nursing, and many other related fields in health care, an attractive career prospect for a number of years now.

“You can’t expect people to come to work and have a positive attitude when the government is freezing wages and rolling back wages and still expecting you to perform at your best.”

The Municipality of Grandview has a population of around 1,500 residents and is located approximately 206 kilometres northwest of Brandon.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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