CARBERRY — Mayor Ray Muirhead said the community went into panic mode when the emergency room at its hospital closed last September because its doctor had left.
“We were always used to having a doctor here — it was a given,” said Muirhead.
“So, we went to town as a council, as a health action committee and as members of the community to make our voices heard.”
It happened just as the fall election campaign was about to kick off and the Tories had a fight on their hands to stay in government.
Carberry representatives met with Wab Kinew, who was seeking to be elected premier.
On Friday, outside the front entrance of the hospital, Muirhead stood alongside Kinew, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, members of town council and several members and supporters of the North Cypress Langford health action committee.
“I’m just going to cut to the chase. We’re here to announce the reopening of the Carberry emergency department,” Kinew said, as a large crowd that had gathered for the event erupted in applause.
“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. It really is heart-warming and awe-inspiring to see those local efforts,” said Kinew.
Three family physicians from Brandon and Virden have been hired to work on a rotating basis at the hospital, in the ER and to also provide care to residents in the community’s 36-bed long-term care facility.
Emergency services were available as of April 27, with Dr. Dave Maharaj, Dr. Zaheed Fashola and Dr. Klevis Iliriani seeing patients as of Thursday.
Iliriani took his medical training in Manitoba and has worked in Gillam, Leaf Rapids, St. Pierre-Jolys and Notre Dame de Lourdes.
“I love working rurally,” Iliriani said. “One of the reasons I really like the plan in Carberry is I get to know my patients and have the continuity of care.
“I can see patients in the ER and then follow up with them in the clinic, as opposed to getting them back in the ER, because it’s kind of nice to track down what happened to them, how they did and what we can improve in the future. It’s all about comprehensive medicine,” Iliriani said.
The ER will be open 12 hours a day, which Iliriani called a “good start.”
Iliriani’s home is in Ottawa, where he has a wife and a seven-month-old child. He has agreed to work two weeks at a time in Carberry with a plan to bring his family to Manitoba at “some point when I do longer stretches,” he said.
“I found an excellent community,” Iliriani said. “The mayor was fully on board and when we spoke in person, he told me about the project. I was sold because I found so much dedication from everybody involved. It’s lovely to see.”
The Prairie Mountain Health region, which covers the western part of Manitoba, has 21 health centres. All emergency rooms are open except for Melita, Shoal Lake and Winnipegosis.
Of the ERs that are open, the hours range from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Some are closed on weekends or several days during the month, as per the PMH website, which posts hours of operation.
It wasn’t easy to get Carberry’s ER reopened, said Muirhead, and when asked whether it was the squeaky wheel that got the grease, he said yes.
“That’s how you get yourself on the map. I’m not saying we’re any better or any worse than any other community… but you have to get your name out there. We were the squeaky wheel. We made it happen.”
Asagwara said communities should follow the “all hands-on deck approach.”
“We will work with everybody as a government who wants to work at improving health care and fixing health care in rural Manitoba,” Asagwara said.
“Building relationships is key, working together, bringing people to the table, listening to front-line voices and 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,” said Asagwara.
Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said communities are their own best advocates — they know what they offer and they welcome new health workers with open arms.
“We’ve been working very hard behind the scenes to support this initiative,” said Slate.
“Opening an emergency room isn’t just about having a physician, it’s about having the nursing staff, the allied health staff, the lab staff in place to support that. So, there has been much effort on our part to try to ensure that we have all the resources in place to support the emergency room opening, and it’s not easy,” she said.
The “ultimate goal,” Slate said, is to have a consistent physician in place in Carberry by the fall.
Muirhead urged other communities to keep up the work to recruit doctors.
“Just keep that message going. This is not the same as it used to be. So, we have to really work at this and continue the momentum going forward.”
— Brandon Sun