PMH forced to close Melita ER: Schoonbaert

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/07/2022 (1329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MELITA — Prairie Mountain Health knew closing the Melita emergency department was going to be a hard sell, but chief executive officer Brian Schoonbaert said he had to come to the town himself to explain why and assure the community a plan to avoid this in the future is in the works.

The Legion Memorial Hall was packed with residents Tuesday evening for a special meeting on the two-month closure, which came into effect Monday, and the plan to fill the service gaps in the meantime.

Schoonbaert was among a panel that was available to answer questions, along with several executive members of the regional health authority, Melita Mayor Bill Holden, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk, who’s also the Progressive Conservative MLA for Turtle Mountain, and Callum Melvin, the director of emergency response services for Shared Health.

The reason for this closure is because of staff shortages in personal care homes in nearby Deloraine and Reston. The regional health authority could not allow those facilities to close and move residents to other facilities, so it took a clause in the Manitoba Nurses Union contract to allow PMH to move nurses up to 50 kilometres to fill empty shifts.

Those nurses will be compensated, including a stipend and travel, Schoonbaert said.

Despite the bad news, Schoonbaert said he was glad to have the chance to explain the situation personally.

“It’s complicated and in this case for Melita, we were asking them to have their staff released from the hospital here to go work in personal care homes not in their communities,” he said. “ We didn’t want to do this; unfilled shifts made this decision for us. Residents have been very gracious. I’m glad to say we will go back to normal come September, but it’s not going to be easy in the meantime.”

Coming from Deloraine, he knows how much this is hurting the region. However, home care, public health and lab work will continue uninterrupted, he said.

In addition, Melita only has 10 days per month where the emergency room is open. Most of the shifts to pick-up are in Reston. PMH can’t move staff from Deloraine because it is more than 50 kilometres away. Ten days a month is not ideal, he said, so PMH will work to determine a different model to have something more consistent.

The main issue is staffing and availability. PMH had looked at agency nurses, Schoonbaert said, but were told they were not picking up any more shifts this summer. The next best option was taking nurses from nearby areas. By September, PMH will be reducing personal care home and transitional numbers in Deloraine and Reston until they can get more staff.

This is a global problem, Schoonbaert said, and for PMH and many others, it takes just one sick call to cause cancellations.

“We are doing what we can so we don’t go back to this scenario,” he said. “We may have to come up with a very different model than what we have now. 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.”

Several people in the hall had questions about staffing, recruitment and retention. Longtime resident Jim Anderson said there were three physicians when he moved to the community. Now there is one. As well, many of the medical staff that do work at the hospital are not from the community, so there is little incentive for them to stay.

One idea that was suggested was more nurse practitioners to fill the service gaps. However, there seems to be no nurse practitioner spots at all in hospitals, said Kanesha Dillabough, an acute care nurse at the Melita hospital.

She explained she looked into becoming one and knew of at least three that wanted to work in the community, but were unable to get a position.

“I want to know why would I want to spend all that money to study, will I get to come back to my community and work here?” she said.

Dillabough also wanted to know whether any future plan would include the health-care staff that are already working in the community.

Schoonbaert replied that it will be a collaborative effort. He couldn’t give details, but said the plan is looking at more nurse practitioners working in the region. The model they have includes a return of service plan, which will guarantee a job for the nurse practitioners, as well as them staying for at least a set amount of time.

Holden said town council is committed to working with Piwniuk and PMH to get through this and asked everyone to please show decorum during this time.

He explained the town’s hospital was one of the better-staffed facilities in the area. The shortages in Reston and Deloraine meant they had to draw from the hospital. What PMH called “reasonable staffing” could’ve continued services as is with a few nurses relocated, but with 35 unfilled shifts in Reston and around 25 in Deloraine, they had to fill those shifts.

But he agreed that a major problem with staffing is recruitment and retention.

“At this point, I dub all of you recruiters,” he said. “We need to get more people from this community into the medical field. It’s great we have people coming in for a time, but we need people from this community.”

» kmckinley@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @karenleighmcki1