Doctor shortage hits Yellowhead

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This article was published 05/11/2022 (1112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — In the wake of Shoal Lake’s only doctor leaving for work elsewhere, the mayor of the Rural Municipality of Yellowhead has sounded the alarm on the state of health care in his community.

The lone physician remaining (after another doctor’s earlier departure) has moved from practising at both the Yellowhead Community Clinic in Shoal Lake and the health clinic in Hamiota to just the latter facility. Now, there is one nurse practitioner working as the sole health-care provider at the Yellowhead clinic.

The health-care personnel shortage is affecting rural communities across Canada, said Mayor Mervin Starzyk.

“The most frustrating part is when the regional health authority sees fit — because of a shortage in the metropolitan regions and surrounding areas — to relocate a physician from the rural areas to some of those larger centres,” he said Friday.

A spokesperson for Prairie Mountain Health (which is responsible for Yellowhead) said “there is physician coverage” for the transitional care unit and nurse practitioner coverage of the personal care home in Shoal Lake.

The health authority has met with local representatives and members of the Yellowhead clinic committee to discuss “recruitment and services” to the area, and is actively recruiting a second nurse practitioner to provide primary care to the community, it said.

“Recruitment for… nurse practitioner positions are also currently posted with several universities,” the spokesperson told the Sun in an email.

As well, the health authority is collaborating with the community and stakeholders on a number of physician recruitment strategies, including university graduate programs and physician residency programs, it said.

However, recruiting doctors is only one part of the problem, Starzyk said.

Issues such as heavy workloads, being on call 24-7 and wanting to live in bigger centres can all lead physicians to have a limited time span in rural communities.

“The public has to realize that doctors are people, too. They have private lives, they have families… they have spouses, and it can turn out to be lonely for them,” the mayor said.

Sometimes, physicians who have agreed to make their home in a rural community are later redeployed by the health authority, Starzyk said.

“We’ve heard stories where a community will find a physician, he’ll want to come to the location but the regional health authority steps in and says, ‘No, you’re going elsewhere.’”

Prairie Mountain didn’t immediately respond to a request for a followup interview.

In the meantime, while Starzyk is confident in the current nurse practitioner’s ability to serve her patients well — calling her a “life saver” — one health-care professional is not enough for a community of more than 1,800.

“There’s a certain limit to what they can or can’t do.”

Starzyk, who also serves on the board of directors for the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, said the fact he’s hearing the same stories from other small communities has brought one question front and centre in his mind: “Is Shared Health working?”

The provincial health organization was created in 2018 to “better integrate and co-ordinate the planning of patient-centred care in Manitoba.”

Health Minister Audrey Gordon was unavailable for an interview Friday.

— Brandon Sun