First-of-its kind clinic coming to city

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This article was published 28/03/2024 (558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The existing Brandon Clinic could be the site of a new minor injury and illness clinic opening in the city as part of a $17-million investment by the province.

Announced Wednesday in Brandon by Premier Wab Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, the clinic will be the first of its kind in the city. It will be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week and be staffed by physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses, said Kinew.

“This minor injury and illness clinic effectively functions like an urgent care centre,” he said.

“It’s for those maybe less acute conditions — you get hurt at the hockey game, your kid has a fall on the playground, maybe you have strep or some other condition that’s maybe not quite at the level of an ER, but you do need to get it addressed right away.”

The premier spoke to a crowd of health-care workers and other hospital staff during a news conference in the atrium of Brandon Regional Health Centre, saying it was his first budget announcement ahead of the government’s 2024 budget, which will be handed down April 2.

Brandon is one of eight locations in the province and outside of Winnipeg that will share the multimillion-dollar funding. Five will become primary care clinics, and the two others will be minor injury and illness clinics.

While no allocation of funding for Brandon’s portion was confirmed during the news conference, the premier’s press secretary told the Sun that $1 million has been set aside for staffing costs.

Patients will be able to book same-day appointments and connect with providers via virtual care either by phone or online, with the hope of reducing the number of people going to the emergency room, which will reduce wait times, said Prairie Mountain Health CEO Brian Schoonbaert.

The plan for the Wheat City is to open an interim minor injury and illness clinic this September, said Schoonbaert, who confirmed that the Brandon Clinic located one block west of the hospital is a potential site.

“We have a number of locations that we’ve already looked at and we have some possibilities, but we just want to take one more look to see if there’s anything better,” he said.

“We are looking at potentially a short term and longer term, so as not to restrict our ability to expand as necessary.”

The Brandon Clinic discontinued its walk-in services in July 2023 because of a shortage of family physicians.

When asked by the Sun what the plan was to find front-line health-care workers for the new clinic, Asagwara said staffing is the NDP’s No. 1 priority.

“There’s no one silver bullet in terms of addressing the staffing challenges, but there are many different approaches that we have to be able to take simultaneously to meet those needs,” Asagwara said.

“This announcement is an investment in people. It’s providing the opportunity for staff across many disciplines to be able to work in a setting that we know is very successful, to provide unique training opportunities to create a team-based model of care, that will really support folks being able to work to their full scope of practice,” Asagwara added.

“This is a model that’s going to be very, very attractive for health-care workers, not only in Brandon, but throughout the Westman.”

Kinew said while the new clinic will provide a level of care that can meet patients’ needs, it will also be a “powerful new recruiting tool.”

“Specifically in the Westman region, to say you can come to Prairie Mountain (Health), you can come to Brandon, you can come to one of the nearby communities, and work in a setting that is very meaningful for you that uses the full scope of your skills and is beyond what you’re going to be able to access in many other settings,” he said.

“And really the only place that somebody would have access to right now is in Winnipeg, the minor injury and illness clinic on Corydon (Avenue). And we’re saying hey, folks in Brandon should have access to the same level of care, too. That’s what this commitment is all about.”

There are more than 100 job openings posted right now for doctors and nurses that need to be filled in the Prairie Mountain Health Region, said Wayne Balcaen, Progressive Conservative MLA for Brandon West.

Balcaen said his government had several plans in the works to bring more health-care workers to the province, including a recruiting mission to the Philippines in February 2023, which resulted in applications from nearly 190 registered nurses, 110 health-care aides and 50 licensed practical nurse equivalents.

Additionally, in July 2023, the PCs hired a recruiting firm to bring 150 doctors to health-care regions in the province, including PMH.

Balcaen said the NDP came to Brandon empty-handed.

“An empty clinic won’t treat patients, and in my time, the NDP still have not come forward with a credible plan to fill health-care vacancies, not create more of them … Alluding to the money that is in this budget, and telling workers to pick up more shifts while making their announcements, is an insult, quite frankly,” Balcaen said.

As Kinew and Asagwara addressed front-line health-care workers in Brandon, they encouraged them to attend their listening tour set for 7:30 a.m. today at BRHC.

The premier and health minister announced the listening tour last November, saying it would give health-care workers a chance to share their ideas, concerns and priorities about helping to fix the system.

Seven hospitals across the province are on the list. Brandon is the fourth stop.

“It’s away from the media and it’s away from management also, so you can speak freely,” said Kinew. “And this is part of the minister of health and our whole team’s commitment to you on the front lines, to hear the ideas that you have to make hospitals like this one meet the needs of the patients, meet the needs of the communities.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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