Minor injury clinic finds home downtown

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This article was published 11/09/2024 (567 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A downtown Brandon clinic that has been closed for almost a decade is renovated and ready to operate as a new minor injury and illness clinic.

Prairie Mountain Health is recruiting staff for the clinic, which was announced earlier this year by the NDP government.

Of the $600,000 in renovations, about $130,000 was paid for by grants from the Brandon Downtown Development Corporation, says Jennifer Ludwig, president of Super Thrifty Drugs Canada Ltd.

“Super Thrifty Drugs Canada took on the rest of the bill,” Ludwig said.

Super Thrifty Drugs Canada is an independently owned pharmacy chain with 16 locations in Manitoba — two in downtown Brandon — and one in British Columbia.

“Western Medical Clinic used to operate out of this space, and they moved out of there coming up to 10 years,” said Ludwig. “That’s the space that’s been revamped and redeveloped. Super Thrifty became owners of the building, and our goal was always to fill it with health-care professionals and bring health care back to downtown Brandon. We want to bring it back to its former glory,” she said.

The Brandon Minor Injury and Illness Clinic — the first of its kind for the city — will be located on the main level of 144 Sixth St. and operate seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Health professionals will see patients who have minor health concerns such as suspected fractures and sprains, rashes, fevers, sore throats or ears, abdominal pain, eye infections, colds and coughs.

Plans for the new medical facility were announced in March by Premier Wab Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara during a news conference in the atrium of Brandon Regional Health Centre.

The clinic was part of a $17-million Budget 2024 investment to open new clinics across the province, with $1 million earmarked for Brandon.

At that time, Brian Schoonbaert, who was CEO of Prairie Mountain Health, told the Sun that a “potential location” for the new minor injury clinic would be the Brandon Clinic, across from BRHC.

Ludwig said the company had already started renovations when it learned that PMH was looking for a clinic space.

“I toured Prairie Mountain Health around,” she said. “The space seemed to fit. We were still in the construction phase at that time, so we shared plans, renderings, kept them in the loop, and worked very closely with their counterparts to do what we could to make this space appealing to them when they came to make their decision,” said Ludwig.

The main floor of the new clinic is just over 5,700 square feet, Ludwig added, with 19 examination rooms, a front reception area and attached pharmacy.

There is already one physician working in the clinic — Dr. Mbuyu Bushidi. He is a cardiologist and is not attached to the minor injury and illness operation, but Ludwig said his office was the “first domino to fall into place” and that her hope is “if you build it, they will come.”

Five months ago, Prairie Mountain CEO Treena Slate told the Sun the health region was “short approximately 80 GPs and hospitalists.”

And last summer, the Brandon Clinic ended its walk-in services because of a severe shortage of family physicians.

On Tuesday, Doctors Manitoba, the province’s non-partisan physicians’ advocacy group, told the Sun there are “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, this new minor injury clinic was planned without much consultation with the existing physicians and clinics in Brandon,” a spokesperson with Doctors Manitoba said in an email.

A spokesperson for Prairie Mountain Health said they were told there was a need for the clinic by health-care providers last June, and they are currently “recruiting physicians from across Brandon and the region to fill each shift at the clinic, which will have a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a physician and a clerical staff person.

“An expression of interest has gone out for physician and nurse practitioner positions, as well as other required positions,” the spokesperson said in an email, adding the hope is to have a soft launch opening at the end of September or beginning of October.

The minor injury and illness clinic is a first for Brandon, and the “magnitude” of the renovation on Sixth Street is a first for Super Thrifty Drugs Canada, said Ludwig, who added she realizes there is a risk, because “it can’t operate without physicians, nurse practitioners.”

“That’s always a worry. Brandon and all of Manitoba is hurting for doctors and the goal of this space was never to poach doctors from other established locations,” she said.

“Hopefully it will attract new grads or physicians looking to come to Canada or (from) elsewhere in Canada, knowing there is a minor injury and illness clinic here,” Ludwig said. “I hope physicians choose Brandon as a place to practice, because it’s giving them yet another avenue that they could have a turnkey place to set up shop. That was our goal.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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