Friday will mark the two year anniversary of the closure of the Emergency Room in Vita. ER services became temporarily unavailable October 17th, 2012 due to a shortage of physicians but the Emergency Room has yet to reopen.
Dr. Denis Fortier is Vice President of Medical Services for Southern Health-Santé Sud. Dr. Fortier says it's difficult to say whether the Regional Health Authority is any closer today to reopening. He points out in fall of 2012, the hospital in Vita dropped from three physicians to two. Dr. Fortier says while some might suggest it takes four or five physicians to make an ER sustainable, it requires a minimum of three physicians to run an Emergency Room. Today that hospital has 2.5 physicians, though Dr. Fortier is hopeful an internationally trained physician will join the team in spring of 2015.
"We're not on solid ground," admits Dr. Fortier. "We still have physicians potentially leaving due to natural circumstances such as maternity leaves. We do have physicians whose contracts are up for re-negotiation in March of 2015 and some of those physicians are writing exams and they may choose to leave for other areas."
Dr. Fortier says shutting down an ER is tough, but reopening it is that much more difficult. He notes the last thing the RHA wants is to reopen only to have to close a few weeks later when another physician steps down.
Lothar Dueck is a pharmacist in Vita. He says the absence of an ER has hurt business.
"There's less reason for people to come to Vita," says Dueck. "And if they're in Steinbach they will leave their money there too, they will buy their gas there too. So it's just not only one little thing, we're not a destination anymore."
Furthermore, Dueck says travelling to Steinbach for health care is more cumbersome for Vita residents. He notes some of the older residents won't drive to Steinbach and adds cost becomes a factor when you consider gas money to and from.
"Never say never," notes Dr. Fortier when asked whether Vita's ER will ever reopen. But he says their experience from other communities that have lost their ER is that it creates atrophy.
"You get atrophy in the medical personnel who after awhile decide they don't have the expertise to work in Emergency Room," notes Dr. Fortier. "You get atrophy on the nursing side where they sometimes lose their skills in emergency."
Dr. Fortier says there are two groups of physicians; those who want to work in Emergency Rooms and those who don't. He notes in some communities they've had difficulty recruiting physicians because of the absence of an ER, while in other communities it was tough finding physicians because there was an ER.
"I can't force a physician to work in an Emergency Room if they don't want to," says Dr. Fortier. "That worries me, that tells me perhaps that person has concerns about their skills, concerns about their abilities and I don't want people to have substandard care."
Dr. Fortier admits his goal right now and the priority of Manitoba Health is making sure residents of Vita have primary care.
"After that we can look at ER," he says. "But honestly more important than the ER for me is that our folks get their primary care needs met."
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