Lack of clarity, planning not helping anyone

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2017, former Progressive Conservative health minister Kelvin Goertzen stood before reporters gathered at the Brandon Regional Health Centre to announce a major overhaul of emergency medical services that would particularly affect rural Manitoba.

During that announcement, Goertzen offered up positive news, saying five new EMS stations would be placed strategically across rural Manitoba, including in the communities of Alonsa, Cowan, Miniota, Eriksdale and Manigotagan, while stations in Virden and Glenboro would be enhanced.

These changes, we were told, stemmed from recommendations contained in the 2013 Provincial EMS Review commissioned by the previous NDP that were never acted upon.

However, buried in all of the political glad-handing and back-patting was the news that as a result of this major overhaul, low call-volume rural stations across southern Manitoba — the majority of them in Westman — would be scheduled to close in the coming years.

The list of EMS stations to close included Baldur, Birtle, Boissevain, Cartwright, Elkhorn, Ethelbert, Grandview, Hamiota, Hartney, McCreary, Oak Lake, Reston, Rossburn, Treherne and Wawanesa. Stations in Elie, Manitou, Swan Lake, Bissett, Lundar, Pinawa, Reynolds and Riverton were also scheduled for closure.

As we reported at the time, the locations of these closures were not immediately available to reporters at the announcement, but rather were given by a provincial spokesperson well after the fact when the Sun made further inquiries. It was a failure of communication and planning by a government that was struggling to deal with some unpleasant realities of rural health care and its delivery in southern Manitoba.

As Oakland-Wawanesa head of council Dave Kreklewich told us that year, the complaint from rural municipalities across Westman was that the province did not consult with communities before making the announcement.

The closure of the Wawanesa EMS station earlier this month, however, did not come as a surprise to area residents. Speaking to media, Kreklewich said the closure of the Wawanewsa ambulance service had “been a topic of discussion for a long time … We knew it was coming.”

“It’s been bare bones and we’ve been doing everything we can to maintain it,” he said, “but it’s now got to the point where … it’s not workable any longer.”

But in terms of planning, the province and Prairie Mountain Health seem unprepared for the extra burden the closure of the Wawanesa EMS station will place upon surrounding stations and communities.

The closure of the Wawanesa station came on top of a decision by Shared Health to rely more on air transport for non-emergency patients. But according to Brandon Firefighter/Paramedics Local 803 president Terry Browett, this decision will put added pressure on Brandon ambulances that are used to transport patients between the hospital and the airport.

As a result of these developments, response times are going up, Browett said, and there has been no word of additional resources to help them deal with the extra work.

“All these added stressors are now just creating less ambulance availability for Brandon people.”

While stations in Glenboro, Souris and perhaps Carberry are more likely to respond to calls in Wawanesa, Brandon does respond as well.

And in the past year, we have already witnessed what happens when city ambulances are not available for Brandon calls. It was one year ago this month that then 67-year-old Joseph Nault fell in the Real Canadian Superstore parking lot and was left waiting on the ground in dangerously freezing temperatures for about 40 minutes for an ambulance to transport him to the BRHC.

As there were no ambulances available in Brandon at the time of the accident, Nault was transported by an ambulance sent to Brandon from the community of Rivers.

To be fair to the government, there have been some improvements to the system in southern Manitoba since the 2017 announcement, including new EMS stations in Portage la Prairie and Crystal City, along with the hiring of dozens of new paramedics throughout the province.

These additional resources have been touted by the province to show rural residents that the government is indeed trying to improve the system. But Shared Health was curiously evasive when we asked how many EMS stations have been shuttered so far.

According to Wayne Chacun, table officer with the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, the Reston, McCreary, Wawanesa, Birtle and Hamiota EMS offices are inoperative, either because they’ve been closed or they aren’t being staffed — though for the most part the organization was unsure as well.

This lack of clarity from the province is not helpful for rural communities and the residents who rely on the rural EMS system. Worse still, it seems premature to close a station without ensuring other surrounding communities have the resources to pick up the slack.

The Tories don’t seem to be learning from their previous communication and planning mistakes, both to our detriment, and theirs.