Municipal and First Nation partners want to bring primary care back to the community

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This article was published 29/03/2025 (362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Melita Mayor Bill Holden says he — along with the reeve of a nearby municipality and the Canupawakpa Dakota Nation — have ideas about how to breathe life into the community’s failing health-care system, and he has managed to get Prairie Mountain Health onboard.

Now, Holden says, the challenge is to convince the province to bring primary care — which includes a physician, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and an additional lab technician — back to the community.

“We actually have a proposal that was drawn up by the Town of Melita, our neighbouring Municipality of Two Borders and the Regional Health Authority,” Holden said. “And that’s the proposal that we’re putting to the provincial government for funding.”

In September 2023, the emergency department was permanently closed at Melita Health Centre, which meant the hospital is now a transitional facility for patients waiting to go into long-term care.

The town’s physician retired at about the same time, and eight months ago, Melita lost its last EMT to higher pay in Winnipeg, said Holden.

“We had eight EMTs at one time and now we’re down to zero. So, we have no ambulance service in our community. None whatsoever. We have two nice ambulances, but they’re parked.”

The funding request is to increase Melita Health Centre’s operating budget. And while Holden said he isn’t able to share the exact amount, he added it’s been a challenge figuring out “who to ask for what.”

“Prairie Mountain Health is in charge of hiring and paying doctors, nurses and support staff, and Shared Health is in charge of lab techs, EMTs and ambulances, but the bills are all paid by Manitoba Health,” he said.

“So, we’ve had to go through this whole minefield to try and find out where the answers are.

“And our proposal is not outrageous. We’ve even modified it twice with the RHA to show that we can save more money.”

Partnerships between municipalities and regional health authorities make health-care stronger, Manitoba’s Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told the Sun.

“Their proposal really reflects that willingness to work together,” Asagwara said, “and to me, that matters. So, I think their asks are reasonable, and our government is going to work directly with Prairie Mountain Health and with Melita and the mayor to take steps to stock the front lines and repair the services that the previous government damaged.”

Melita is about 131 kilometres southwest of Brandon and has a population of a little more than 1,000 people, with 1,000 more in surrounding communities — “our catchment area,” said Holden.

The health clinic is currently staffed by two nurse practitioners and Dr. Alexander McKinnon, a locum who comes to Melita from Deloraine once a week. The lab has one technician who works Monday to Friday, conducting tests and doing X-rays once a week.

Included in Melita’s catchment area is the Canupawakpa Dakota Nation, which has given its own proposal to the Town of Melita and Municipality of Two Borders to contribute capital funding to the hospital.

Holden said he welcomes any contribution to making health care better for everyone, as long as it aligns with PMH’s guidelines.

“We’re in a situation where, yes, we’ll listen to anybody that has some kind of a proposal,” Holden said. “And I’m well aware of the needs that they have in First Nations communities, so if we can work with them, that would be great, but it also has to be with the RHA.”

As mayor, Holden said he has received many questions, calls and emails about the status of the hospital, the proposal to the government and the one from Canupawakpa Dakota Nation.

That’s why he said that Melita council and the reeve of the Municipality of Two Borders have scheduled a community meeting.

It will be held Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Melita branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. It is advertised on the Town of Melita’s Facebook page as an “urgent health-care meeting,” with representatives from PMH and Shared Health slated to be in attendance.

“We have to get our issues out there, and I realize that health care is a horrible mess everywhere,” Holden said. “But there are so many small communities that are struggling just like us, and maybe this proposal that we put together can be used in other communities that are similar to ours, as a template.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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