Rural ERs struggle with closures

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This article was published 21/12/2023 (626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many rural Manitobans who get ill or injured during Christmas may find they need to travel farther for treatment because their local emergency room is closed.

Hospitals grapple with the shortage of doctors and nurses throughout the year, but it’s especially acute during the period from Christmas to New Year’s Day.

The closures depend on where people live: In Ashern, residents will be in luck because the emergency room is scheduled to be open 24-7 until Dec. 31.

However in Eriksdale, a 40-minute drive south, the ER closed for the holidays on Dec. 18.

Outside Winnipeg, the only ERs guaranteed to be open are in larger centres, including Brandon, Selkirk, Portage la Prairie, Dauphin and Steinbach.

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said ER closures are becoming increasingly common.

“We’re seeing that more and more,” Jackson said.

“When you look at places like Boissevain and Killarney at other times of the year, there’s often only one ER open because they don’t have the staff to man them. They don’t have enough nurses. I’m not surprised to see this happen at Christmas.”

Doctors Manitoba released a statement that said: “Doctors continue to be very concerned about frequent and pervasive ER closures across rural Manitoba. The main cause of these closures is the shortage of physicians and other health-care providers.”

Kam Blight, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, said the problem rears its head at any time of the year.

“The AMM has long called for the province of Manitoba to disclose a comprehensive health-care system plan with a specific focus on addressing challenges in rural health-care facilities,” Blight said in a statement Wednesday.

“The existing staffing shortages are putting strain on the overall system, underscoring the urgent need for accessible and dependable health care in all our communities.”

Christmas Day is particularly a problem in the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, which has 10 hospitals.

In a Nov. 9 email marked “urgent,” Pamela Robertson, who is in charge of physician recruitment for the authority, wrote: “Currently we only have Ashern and Selkirk open on Christmas Day.”

“No services are available on the east side (of the RHA on) Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day. We are urgently seeking out coverage to ensure that the (Selkirk Regional Health Centre) is not overloaded during this time.”

Since then, the authority has found staff for Stonewall’s ER on Christmas Day and the one in Pine Falls from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Dr. Charles Penner, the authority’s chief medical officer, said its December schedule “typically reflects a mix of staff and physician shortages, staff and physician holiday time away, or illness.

“When the number of care providers is limited… we work to ensure that at least one emergency department is staffed on the east and west side of the region in addition to Selkirk Regional Health Centre that is our regional hospital.”

In Southern Health, which has 10 hospitals stretching from Steinbach to Portage la Prairie, the only hospital emergency room scheduled to be closed on Christmas Day is in Morris, which is right on Highway 75, the main link to the U.S.

A spokesperson for the health authority said the Morris ER has been closed since September and no date has been set for the reopening. A temporary walk-in clinic has been set up. Its hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m.

“This temporary closure has enabled Morris General Hospital to maintain core services while we work with limited physician options,” the spokesperson said

In Prairie Mountain Health, which has 21 hospitals and health centres in western Manitoba, nine of its ERs will be closed and two others will be open for limited hours.

A spokesman said while Shoal Lake and Winnipegosis ERs have been closed indefinitely “for quite some time,” the other three facilities “have gone through various periods of temporary suspension of (emergency department) services until the required physician complement can be found to reinstate emergency room coverage.

“It’s a constant ebb and flow as it relates to recruitment,” the spokesman said. “Just when we recruit health-care professionals to one community or area, we have vacancies pop up in another.”

No one from the Northern Regional Health Authority, which has nine hospitals, could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Jackson said the ER at the Thompson General Hospital has only about 50 per cent of the nurses it needs, while the St. Anthony’s General Hospital in The Pas sent out a recent text saying it was “in a desperate need for any nurses available with any skill set, from now until Feb. 10.

“Orientation will be provided as needed. Of note: special care unit on the brink of shutting down!”

Jackson said that once Christmas holidays are thrown into the mix “you have big trouble.”

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Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the difficult situation is on the government’s radar and they get daily briefings about the needs and pressures on rural health authorities.

“Just a few weeks ago, I made the announcement of new medicine beds that will help reduce wait times and improve patient flow.”

While that announcement involved Winnipeg, Asagwara said similar announcements for rural areas would be made in the coming months.

“It was quite heartening to meet with recent nursing grads who will be heading out to various parts of the province in the very near future. I am working with my colleagues, our partners and the (health authorities) to help retain and recruit new doctors and health-care providers. This is a top priority for me.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.