More than 150 people from both Manitoba and Saskatchewan filled the R.H. Channing Auditorium on April 13 to discuss the state of health care in Flin Flon.
The meeting, organized by Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsey and Cumberland MLA Doyle Vermette, both of the NDP, was an opportunity for area residents to voice their comments and concerns on health care in the area.
Also present was NDP health critic Andrew Swan. Manitoba health minister Kelvin Goertzen and Saskatchewan NDP health critic Danielle Chartier were invited to the meeting but were unable to attend. Northern Health Region (NHR) CEO Helga Bryant and board chair Cal Huntley were at a previously scheduled regional health authority meeting in Winnipeg on the day of the event. NHR representative Twyla Storey was present at the meeting to take notes and report them to the NHR CEO and chair, though she was not authorized to speak at the meeting.
Issues raised by attendees included concerns over doctor shortages and wait times, mental health resources, necessary travel to larger centres for health care, and the use of the emergency room as a defacto clinic.
Greg Bauman said his personal observation is that the hospital clinic is “almost dysfunctional.”
“That forces people who need to have prescriptions refilled to go to emergency,” said Bauman.
“Those doctors in emergency are not there to fill out presciptions…we’re wasting resources in our emergency [room]. We need to have better care and services in the clinic.”
Telis Keramydas recalled a meeting held years ago to discuss the move of the clinic on Church Street to the hospital.
“Fast forward to today, I think things have gotten worse than what it was back then,” said Keramydas, who received applause from the crowd when he suggested local stakeholders should form a committee to bring more fee-for-service doctors to Flin Flon.
“See how we can bring more doctors to Flin Flon so they with their families can buy a home and start a practice here, bond with patients and not change doctors every two or three years as we do now. See how we can do this and bring fee-for-service doctors to Flin Flon because what we’ve been doing for the last seven years doesn’t work. It has failed,” said Keramydas.
Snow Lake resident Garry Zamzow, who has helped form a committee in Snow Lake to influence physician recruitment and retention in the area, told the crowd about the frustration and disappointment the Snow Lake community felt when it learned its doctor was leaving.
“The conversation was going through our community every which angle and coming back and forth…[we decided] the best thing to do was get ourselves organized, approach town council and see if they had any particular plan in place,” said Zamzow.
“We mustered 10 people from our community to appear at the meeting to influence town council which direction to go. We offered as a community…to look into what we could, as a community, do to recruit and retain a doctor. Council seemed to value what we were offering and gave us their blessing. We have two members of council on our group along with others.”
Zamzow said the objective of the group is to ensure Snow Lake has full time medical services and a full time resident doctor, and to represent the community as a common voice to advocate for medical service in the community.
“After all, who can speak better for the community than members of the community, right?”
Dr. Krishan Sethi was present at the meeting and spoke to the costly nature of setting up a private practice, which could deter doctors from setting up in Flin Flon outside of a contract. Sethi said he would sit on a committee to recruit physicians if it were formed.
Sethi also mentioned physicians at the hospital are limited to 25 daily encounters. A spokesperson from the NHR said there is no restriction to how many encounters a physician may have each day, though CEO Helga Bryant said in February that a physician generally sees between 15 and 20 patients on a daily basis.
MLA Tom Lindsey wondered what is causing physicians to want to leave the area.
“Unfortunately, some of them won’t talk to us officially because they are concerned about repercussions throughout the system,” said Lindsey.
A spokesperson from the NHR said that as part of the organization’s human resources process, exit interviews are conducted with departing physicians by medical services senior staff. The NHR has previously said physicians typically leave for larger centres.
It was suggested during the meeting that physicians should be required to sign contracts for up to five years to work in the area, however an NHR spokesperson said physicians are covered by a single collective agreement negotiated by the Manitoba government with Doctors Manitoba.
“The current agreement, which was negotiated by the previous government, contains time frames. Individual RHAs cannot alter or operate outside the collective agreement.”
Lindsey said some of the information collected at the meeting will be used to try to convince the ministry that changes need to be made. He added a committee, similar to that formed in Snow Lake, will be formed to investigate how doctors can be attracted to the area.
“I’m going to take the lead on setting it up, but other people will be responsible for actually doing it. Once they figure out who wants to do what, I can be the resource,” said Lindsey, who was pleased with the outcome of the meeting.
“It was a really good meeting and the fact was everybody was respectful and had the best interest of the communities at heart.”
