The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Cuts to highway bussing pose potent challenges for a northern Manitoba health care system that often sends patients south for treatment. Now the Northern Regional Health Authority is bracing for higher transportation costs as it calls on the NDP government to deliver a long-term solution. 'We are working with making our concerns known to government, so hopefully that will get sorted out,' said Helga Bryant, CEO of the RHA. Until the company recently reduced its runs, the RHA had regularly utilized Greyhound buses to move patients from the region to specialist appointments in Winnipeg. 'That is not an option for us any longer,' Bryant said. Greyhound has scrapped its daytime runs between Flin Flon and Winnipeg. Busses between the two communities now operate only overnight, beginning at 8 p.m. While it remains possible for a patient to travel to and from Winnipeg on overnight busses, Bryant said that is 'not optimal by any means.' 'I think if any one of us did that trip, we would very soon realize how xhausted (we) are, even us as being healthy individuals, when we get to our destination,' she said, 'nevermind someone who is ill, compromised in some way, ending up being awake most of the night then needing to stay awake and be alert for their appointment, find their way to their appointment and then presumably get back on the night bus to come back up here.' 'Escalate' Bryant said the loss of the daytime bus means the cost of the RHA's patient-travel subsidy program 'will undoubtedly escalate' as more expensive transportation methods, like planes, are employed. Meanwhile, the complete elimination of Greyhound's Flin Flon-Thompson run hurts plans to have more patients travel between those communities rather than to Winnipeg. Nonetheless, Bryant said the RHA remains committed to boosting inter-region patient travel, though she noted this will not happen overnight. She said having more patients stay in the region for specialist appointments means 'better and more timely and less disruptive service' as well as the potential for cost savings. Under the plan, Thompson would be a key destination for patients, as some specialists are already based there. Bryant said preparation will be crucial given that many of those specialists have waiting lists just serving patients in the former Burntwood region, which recently amalgamated with NOR-MAN to form the Northern RHA. 'So if we now, without proper planning...just have our people from this side of the region attend there, we're going to increase wait lists and we're going to be putting extra burden on those physicians,' she said. 'So we need to do this in a very planned, measured way _ that if that's what we're going to do, then we need to increase the number of physicians in (Thompson), so we need to recruit more.' See 'Better...' on pg. 7 Continued from pg. 1 Within a year, Bryant said, the RHA will likely have a 'much better capacity to move patients around within our region.' She said there will also in time be more usage of Telehealth _ a videoconferencing-like system that links patients and doctors _ throughout the North. Patients now using Telehealth normally connect with specialists in Winnipeg, but Bryant sees room for them to increasingly link up with doctors in Thompson, Flin Flon and The Pas. But for now, Bryant remains focused on remedying the transportation problems stemming from the Greyhound cuts. On July 1, Greyhound instituted a series of reductions across Manitoba after the provincial government revoked a subsidy it had been paying the carrier to keep unprofitable routes active. Asked whether she wants the NDP to reinstate the subsidy, Bryant said she is open to any option that works. 'What we want is a consistent, sustainable passenger transport system from the North to other parts of the province where we need to send our patients,' she said. 'How that happens is less important than that it happens.' From the RHA's discussions with the province, Bryant is optimistic that an answer will be found. 'There's some processes underfoot through government that give me some hope that there will be a solution,' she said. 'They have certainly heard us and they are working at trying to find a solution, so I am hopeful.' The Reminder gave the province an opportunity to comment for this article, but as of press time had not received a response.
