Dozens of Carberry residents gathered outside their local emergency department on Friday and applauded as government officials announced they’ve secured more health-care staff, enabling the long-closed space to reopen.
Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara and Premier Wab Kinew announced three physicians have been hired and will work on rotation to support the reopening of the emergency department at the Carberry Health Centre, located about 160 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
“Locally, provincially and even federally, we’ve sadly seen our health-care system crumble,” Loretta Oliver, a member of a local health action community group, said at the news conference.
“The journey that has brought us to today’s announcement has not been easy. And in fact it has been at times so very disheartening…. Today’s announcement is the first major step in a positive direction.”
The ER was closed indefinitely nearly nine months ago, after a staff physician’s contract expired.
Two nurse practitioners continued to provide care at a walk-in clinic four times a week in Carberry, a community in the rural municipality of North Cypress-Langford, which is home to about 6,000 people.
Carberry Health Centre is a 10-bed facility that also has three-dozen personal care home beds, a clinic and an ER. It also offers diagnostic, rehabilitation and home care services.
Data obtained by CBC through a freedom of information request earlier this year said the Carberry Health Centre was closed 10 times last year, for the equivalent of over 141 days — one of several rural or remote facilities suffering from recurring ER closures in recent years due to staffing shortages, vacancies, leaves and other issues.
Carberry’s ER closed Aug. 23, followed by health centres in Melita and Morris on Sept. 1.
The emergency room in Leaf Rapids closed in July 2022. The Northern Health Region insists that is still considered temporary.
ERs in Teulon, Winnipegosis and Shoal Lake have been closed indefinitely for years and no longer report closures with the province.
‘We were in panic mode’
Shortly before the Carberry closure last fall, and ahead of October’s provincial election, Mayor Ray Muirhead said the community was “in panic mode.” He echoed that sentiment Friday.
“We were always used to having a doctor here — it was just a given. And when we lost our last doctor back in September, I mean, thank God for our nurse practitioners and our nursing staff, but we were in panic mode,” Muirhead said at the announcement.
“We wanted our voices to be heard, and it’s evident today that they were.”
Emergency services officially returned to Carberry at the end of April, the province said in a news release, with the new trio of physicians secured as of Friday.
“This was the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Oliver, who has worked at the local health centre.
In addition to providing care in the emergency department, the physicians will care for in-patients recovering at the health centre, as well as residents in the local long-term care centre, a government news release states.
Health care was the focus of last fall’s election campaign for the now-governing NDP.
Premier Kinew said Friday he visited Mayor Muirhead during the campaign, promising physician staff would return and the ER would reopen.
“We have seen first-hand now in the efforts to reopen your emergency department just how much effort and how much work comes from the grassroots, and it really is heartwarming and awe-inspiring to see those local efforts,” Kinew said.
Recruitment efforts
Carberry Health Centre, which is in the Prairie Mountain Health Region, and nearby Glenoro at one time collaborated to open their ERs on a rotating schedule.
Last week, CBC News reported several southern Manitoba communities had hired a Winnipeg-based firm to help recruit physicians to several rural health centres, including the rural municipality of Glenboro-South Cypress, also in Prairie Mountain.
The health authority has agreed to split costs with municipalities who have hired the firm, which can range from $90,000 to $150,000 per doctor.
Prairie Mountain CEO Treena Slate said the authority had to explore all options, because the region is short by about 80 doctors.
Health Minister Asagwara said the NDP government’s health-care worker recruitment and retention office will help facilitate collaboration between regional health authorities, rural communities and grassroots groups by giving them a centralized place to bring forward concerns.
Asagwara said they intend to continue working with Carberry officials and community residents to add staff and ensure a “long-term sustainable plan.”
“Building relationships is key,” said Asagwara.
“Working together, bringing people to the table, listening to front-line voices, listening to community voices, valuing them in how we develop plans for rural health care is fundamentally the approach that our government will continue to take.”