New clinic raises hopes, questions and concerns

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2024 (599 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a long-overdue addition to our health-care options here in Brandon, but many questions remain.

This past Monday, the Manitoba government announced that the city’s first minor injury clinic, located at 144 Sixth St., will open later this month.

In the media release announcing the new facility, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara is quoted as saying that “This clinic is all about convenience and quick care for Brandon families.”

The minister added that “It’s great news for parents when their kid needs stitches or a cast or anyone who needs to see a doctor for non-urgent care and doesn’t want to spend hours in a waiting room.”

The clinic will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days per week. Patients will be able to book appointments online, while some appointments will be reserved for walk-in patients.

The release also says that “The clinic will be staffed by physicians, nurse practitioners and other health-care professionals who will provide support for minor health concerns including minor injuries. Some examples include suspected fractures and sprains, rashes, fevers, sore throats or ears, abdominal pain, eye infections, colds and coughs.”

That all sounds good, but the government’s spinners may be getting ahead of the reality on the ground.

Indeed, it appears that staff have not yet been hired for the facility. Prairie Mountain Health is still in the process of recruiting physicians from across Brandon and the region to fill each shift at the clinic, and an expression of interest has gone out for physician and nurse practitioner positions, as well as other required positions.

And let’s not forget that, as of five months ago, the health region was short approximately 80 doctors and hospitalists.

That reality no doubt caused Doctors Manitoba to tell the Sun they have “serious concerns that with the current doctor shortage, this new clinic will pull resources away from the ER and local clinics, which are already very thinly staffed.”

“While more access for patient care is generally a good thing,” they added, “this new minor injury clinic was planned without much consultation with the existing physicians and clinics in Brandon.”

In politics and many other areas, poor communication is often the cause of many problems, misunderstandings and anxieties. That may be the case here.

It was premature for the government to announce the opening of the clinic would occur this month, before all necessary staff have even been hired. Prairie Mountain Health may be hoping to have a “soft launch opening at the end of September or beginning of October,” but that can’t happen until the facility is fully staffed.

Indeed, Brandon can’t afford to have a repeat of what has happened with the Carberry ER, which has been forced to close for numerous days this summer due to staffing shortages.

Beyond that, Doctors Manitoba raises a valid concern. The opening of this new clinic cannot cause even worse staffing shortages that jeopardize the quality of care in other facilities. I would be very disappointed and worried if my family doctor decided to walk away from his practice and patients so that he could work at this facility, and I suspect that every Brandonite who is lucky enough to currently have a doctor would feel the same way.

Even if the facility can be fully staffed and not impact care at other facilities, there will be an obvious need for PMH to conduct a detailed, long-term communications campaign to educate Brandonites on which facility they should go to when they need care — the ER or the minor injury clinic. While the new facility will treat injuries as severe as fractures, there is no doubt that many Brandonites will go to the ER for treatment for treatment of problems that could be addressed at the minor injury clinic.

That leads to one more challenge for this clinic — its location. On its face, it makes sense for the former clinic on Sixth Street to be used for this purpose. It has the right space and layout, and doing it this way likely saves the government and RHA a lot money.

But what happens when somebody goes to the ER, but is told to go to the minor injury clinic? What happens when somebody shows up at the clinic, but requires treatment that can only be provided at the ER?

The hospital is three long blocks and six short blocks — nine blocks in total — away from the minor injury clinic. Could there be a constant stream of patients flowing between the two facilities, with some requiring ambulance transfers? Could the distance between the two facilities put some patients at risk?

I’m no doctor, but wouldn’t it have made more sense for the minor injury clinic to be located in the same building as the ER, or within a very short distance from the ER, so that patients could be directed to the correct facility with a minimum of risk and hassle?

As I indicated at the top, I fully support the addition of this facility in Brandon. I think it has the potential to reduce ER wait times and improve the quality of care we receive. That said, the situation poses an immense recruitment and communications challenge for the government and RHA.

Brandonites hope that this new facility will improve care in our city, but they also have questions and concerns. It would be in everybody’s interests for those issues to be addressed now, with credible information, before the issues become genuine problems.