Summit brings hope to health stakeholders
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/08/2022 (1283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
News that the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and Doctors Manitoba are meeting to discuss the rural and northern doctor shortage is being welcomed by health-care workers in Westman.
A summit on the shortage is scheduled for Sept. 21 in Portage la Prairie, the groups announced Friday.
Eric Forster, regional economic development officer in the Melita area, said his region is open to discussing solutions.
“It’s fantastic, and it sounds like we are coming to a point where we can no longer, well, keep our heads in the sand,” he said.
He said as of Friday, the Melita region hadn’t yet been invited to the summit but hopes to be a part of the solution.
This news is promising for the region, which has been contending with an emergency room closure at the Melita Health Centre since early last month.
At a community meeting on July 5, Prairie Mountain Health chief executive officer Brian Schoonbaert said the closure was due to 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 moved nurses up to 50 kilometres to fill empty shifts.
There has been no word on when the Melita emergency department will reopen, despite being told it would only be a two-month closure, he added.
Since then, the region has been trying to organize a committee to discuss ongoing issues with closures, recruitment and retention, Forster said. There have been some discussions, but mostly loose and informal ones. The committee is supposed to meet again early next week.
Some of the ongoing problems have been recruitment. One of the solutions discussed has been encouraging more local people to get into health care with the hope they would be more likely to stay in their communities. Forster said that has been experimented with in some communities, with varying degrees of success and failure.
“It’s been brought up a few times. It’s not a new idea,” he said. “I hope it gets brought up again with some renewed interest.”
A plan and solutions have to be made soon as access to medical care is at a premium. Forster said he hasn’t experienced it firsthand, but has been told by some people they tried to access medical care outside Melita at nearby hospitals that were open, but were turned away and told the hospital could not accept any more new patients from outside the community.
“This opens up a whole new can of worms as to where our residents can go to receive health care that they will not be turned away.”
Fortunately, there haven’t been any major medical emergencies in Melita since the closure, he said.
Prairie Mountain Health has been listing emergency department hours of hospitals and closures on its website. Forster said Schoonbaert has been working hard to keep the region informed on what is being done to rectify the situation.
The Portage la Prairie summit will include invited participants from across industry, health care, local and provincial governments, and community development agencies, according to a joint news release from Doctors Manitoba and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.
Its aim is to bring together health, economic development, and community leaders from across the province to review current issues, and examine physician recruitment and retention best practices from within Manitoba and other parts of Canada.
Everyone involved will participate in discussions to come up with a consensus on what needs to be done to attract and retain more doctors in rural and northern Manitoba.
“Manitoba patients are feeling the impact from the physician shortage every day,” said Dr. Candace Bradshaw, president of Doctors Manitoba.
“Manitobans are affected by ER closures, difficulty finding a family doctor, and long waits to get a diagnostic test or surgery. These are longer-term issues affected by a shortage of doctors, and they have been exacerbated by the pandemic over the last two years.”
Health and economic development are intrinsically linked, said Chuck Davidson, president and CEO of Manitoba Chambers of Commerce. Results from a survey conducted among chamber members showed health-care system recovery and investment is their top concern.
“Accessible, reliable, and efficient care enables Manitobans to flourish wherever they reside while ensuring the region is attractive to potential new residents and investment,” Davidson said.
“There is a demonstrated direct correlation between a community’s level of physician care, and that community’s economic potential and long-term sustainability. Manitoba’s ability to recruit and retain more doctors will be an important contributor to our future economy.”
Emergency department schedules for Prairie Mountain Health can be found at https://bit.ly/3pv1vs7.
» kmckinley@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @karenleighmcki1