Community mobilizes to save Seven Oaks CancerCare site

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This article was published 13/11/2020 (1979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“It feels like I’m a number now, not an actual patient or person,” Krista Bodnaruk said.

The 41-year-old Maples resident has been battling cancer on and off for eight years.

Bodnaruk previously received treatment at the Seven Oaks General Hospital oncology clinic, until the provincial government announced in March that the CancerCare Manitoba sites at Seven Oaks and Concordia hospitals would shut down for four weeks.

Bodnaruk moved to Victoria General Hospital, along with many other Seven Oaks and Concordia cancer patients. In September, the government announced the two sites would be permanently closed and consolidated at the other four Winnipeg locations, effective December 2020.

Bodnaruk said now she feels like the level of comfort has changed.

“It’s just a little bit more impersonal. It’s a little more — I don’t want to say intense, but it’s just a different vibe.

“They’re busier. When you’d go to Seven Oaks … the nurses knew you, the nurses would remember you, the clerks would remember you, all that kind of stuff. And now I have no idea who I’m going to see at any given time,” Bodnaruk said.

Community members say the province’s decision to close the Seven Oaks CancerCare site is reflective of the emergency room closure in 2019.

“It’s an attack on the health care in North Winnipeg. They’re continually leaving us stranded when it comes to access to proper health care,” Greg McFarlane said.

McFarlane was a founder of Save the Seven Oaks ER Coalition, and now he’s mobilizing community members to take action against the CancerCare service cuts.

Protect Healthcare in Seven Oaks — a group and Facebook page created by McFarlane — is hosting a virtual public town hall with politicians and stakeholders to advocate against the site closure, at 7 p.m. on Thurs., Nov. 19. The group also created a petition on Change.org

A virtual townhall was held for the Concordia site on Nov. 12.

In an email to the Times, a CancerCare spokesperson defended the consolidation: “The decision to consolidate cancer services was not made easily, but is ultimately in the best interest of all cancer patients. The core principle of high-quality care is a multi-disciplinary model where medical, radiation and surgical oncologists, along with other specialty disciplines, come together to provide a comprehensive treatment plan for patients.”

In a statement published on Sept. 5, Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson responded to the cuts.

“Protecting CancerCare services at these community hospitals is important for ensuring accessibility, improving care, and reducing burdens for CancerCare patients,” Jackson said. “Yet again, this move appears to be more about saving money, rather than what’s in the best interest of patients.”

Crystal Sveinson, a 35-year-old Garden City resident, who received treatment for Stage 4 lymphoma at both the Seven Oaks and Health Sciences Centre sites in 2019, is concerned for patients who will have to travel further for appointments.

“The parking (along McDermot Avenue by HSC) is terrible. It’s hard to get parking, or you have to walk all the way to the clinic.”

Sveinson’s mother drove her to appointments, and she remembers having to pull over on the way home to vomit after treatments. Patients riding public transit will not have that option, she said.

“After your treatments, you’re exhausted … you just want to go home,” Sveinson said.