Concordia Clinic Dynacare lab closing

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This article was published 22/01/2021 (1799 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The pending closure of Dynacare’s Concordia Community Clinic lab has raised concerns among patients.

When Bev McIntyre recently attended an appointment at the clinic, she was surprised to hear that the Dynacare site would be closing.

“Health care services in this area have been decreasing,” said McIntyre, who lives nearby. “I’m bothered by that. Why are they still cutting?”

In November, 2020, a new Dynacare super site was opened at 3-1581 Regent Ave. W, two kilometres from the Concordia site. The new Regent super site is able to accommodate more patients at a time while social distancing, and features longer operating hours. Later in November, a second Dynacare super site opened on Henderson Highway in North Kildonan.

“We are constantly reinvesting in our network to better serve the healthcare needs of Manitobans. That is part of our commitment to the province,” said Dr. Jenisa Naidoo, Dynacare’s chief scientific officer and vice-president of clinical development and quality assurance, at the time.

While the new super sites boast improved amenities, McIntyre is wary of the move away from smaller, community locations.

“I can walk to the (Concordia) clinic, and I often do,” she said. “That sense of community will be lost if we just move to these super centres. Maybe that’s the way things are going in society, but I don’t agree.”

While a date for the closure of the lab has not been announced, a petition to keep the Dynacare lab at Concordia open has been launched. 

“That’s the thing with monopolies in health care, they’re always going to have business,” said McIntyre , who signed it at the clinic and took a page which she circulated among her neighbours. 

Andy Regier, one of the organizers of the Protecting Healthcare in Northeast Winnipeg group, agreed that the news Dynacare plans to close the Concordia lab is concerning.

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“When Dynacare first announced their plans to close 26 clinics throughout Winnipeg (in 2019), there were a lot of concerns raised at that time about access,” Regier said. “I would hope that those concerns had been taken into consideration.”

While the new Dynacare super site location on Regent is only two kilometres away, Regier noted that many without access to a vehicle or who rely on transit would be negatively impacted by the Concordia Clinic lab closure.

“For patients who see their doctor at the clinic, they now have to travel two kilometres to get their tests done rather than going next door,” he said. “For some people, that’s a long way to go.”

The closure is yet another loss to health care amenities in the area, Regier added.

“First it was the ER downgraded to an urgent care, then the loss of the CancerCare clinic, then the IV at ACCESS Transcona, now this, it’s really adding up and concerning for people in this area,” he said. “Once this location is closed, it’s really hard to undo that.”

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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