Nickel Belt News Volume 62 • Issue 04
Friday, January 28, 2022
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Leaf Rapids Health centre reopened Jan. 24 after four-week temporary closure
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
The Leaf Rapids Health centre reopened Jan, 24, ending a four-week temporary closure. Services resumed at 4 p.m. Monday. The health centre has been closed since the last week of December as a result of staffing shortages. It was originally supposed to reopen on Jan. 10 but the Northern Regional Health Authority announced a couple of days prior that the closure would continue indefinitely. The Jan. 21 announcement that the facility would reopen Jan. 24 noted that the staffing situation is still fragile and sick calls or workers failing to pass COVID-19 screening protocols could result in another closure. It came a day after Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew and his party’s three northern MLAs held a virtual press conference highlighting the desperate situation in the northern town of less than 600 residents, about 75 per cent of whom are First Nations, according to Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO). “What had been a longstanding source of frustration, during the last few weeks and months has become an absolute crisis,” said Kinew, who said the
closure, like that of Gillam Hospital for a few days after Christmas, was due to health care cutbacks by the Progressive Conservative government. “It’s the result of decisions that the PC government has made.’ Even before the omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the number of people infected or required to self-isolate skyrocket, Leaf Rapids was operating with less staff than needed. On Nov. 1, only one of three registered nurse positions in Leaf Rapids was filled, a freedom of information request made by the NDP showed. In Lynn Lake, one of the communities, along with Thompson, that Leaf Rapids residents were advised to travel to to seek emergency medical care during the health centre closure, thee of four licensed practical nurse positions and four of five RN positions were vacant at the beginning of November. “It’s just pure luck that somebody hasn’t got seriously hurt so far,” said Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsey, whose riding includes Leaf Rapids. Lindsey said the province needs to figure out why the NRHA has trouble filling jobs and keeping them filled. “It’s like they’re active-
The Northern Regional Health Authority announced Jan, 21 that the Leaf Rapids Health Centre would be reopening at 4 p.m. Jan. 24 after having been closed since the last week of December. ly being discouraged,” he said of health care workers, speculating that the government would like to consolidate more northern health services in larger centres, rather than having them available in outlying communities. The Pas-Kameesak MLA Amanda Lathlin said nursing shortages in The Pas are resulting in women who would otherwise
have given birth there being forced to deliver their babies elsewhere. “This government is not investing in nurses in Northern Manitoba to ensure that we have safe birthing facilities,” she said. Ian Bushie, who represents the Keewatinook electoral district, says the province seems to be closing facilities that do exist and ignoring the needs of
residents in other areas where they don’t, like the Island Lake region, which has close to 15,000 residents and no hospital. Cuts to health care are increasing burnout and stress for the workers who remain, said Kinew, which leads to them leaving the field. “The province is making a lot of excuses to try to cover up for the long-
standing impacts of cuts they’ve made to the health care system,” Kinew said. Earlier on Friday, prior to the reopening of the Leaf Rapids Health centre being announced, the NDP said they supported MKO’s call for Leaf Rapids, which doesn’t have a mayor and council but is governed by an administrator appointed by the province, to declare a state of emergency.
MKO met with NRHA to discuss Leaf Rapids Health Centre closure Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) representatives met with the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) Jan. 18 to discuss reopening the Leaf Rapids Health Centre, which has been closed since late December due to insufficient staff. “It was a positive meeting which included an acknowledgement that work needs to be carried out to transform the health service delivery model in Leaf Rapids to a primary care model in the long term,” said MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee in a press release. “We expect an announcement from the Northern Regional Health Authority about the reopening to be made public soon. The citizens of Leaf Rapids have the right to access health care services.”
The health centre was temporarily shut down due to lack of staff in the last week of December and originally scheduled to reopen Jan. 10. Instead, the NRHA issued a notice Jan. 8 that it would remain closed indefinitely. Town residents who needed urgent medical care had to go to Lynn Lake, two-and-a-half hours away, or Thompson, four hours by car. A clinic assistant wasavailable in Leaf Rapids from the week before the reopneing to arrange telehealth virtual appointments or phone appointments with Thompson physicians, which were available three mornings a week. Settee said the chief administrative officer for the Town of Leaf Rapids, who is not one of its 580 residents, should declare a state of
emergency. The community doesn’t currently have a mayor or council. Because the closure of the health centre left Leaf Rapids residents unable to obtain medical grade masks and rapid antigen tests for COVID-19, MKO was attempting to source these items on an urgent basis and have a staff member deliver them to the community as the post office is currently closed and there is no bus service. A letter Settee wrote to Health Minister Audrey Gordon on Jan. 12 has not yet been answered or acknowledged, MKO says. “I am once again urging our minister of health to meet with my office to discuss and plan next steps in support of the health and well-being of our Northern Manitoba citizens,” Settee said.
Nickel Belt News file photo Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee in October 2021.