Locum housing project enters fund-raising stage: Project price tag more than doubles

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Last fall local citizens of Rainy River, Dawson, Lake of the Woods and Morley Townships learned that full time doctors in Rainy River want better accommodations for visiting locums.
At that time it was proposed that a home on the Rainy River be constructed at an approximate cost of $265,000, to be shared amongst the aforementioned communities. However, last Tuesday the 35 people attending the hastily organized second public meeting heard that the early estimates were low. “The cost, fully furnished, will be between $600,000 to $700,000,” said Dr. David Singleton.
Singleton was citing figures derived from an architect the committee enlisted to design the home now being called Rainy River House. Later in the week, Pat Giles, Clerk for Dawson and Lake of the Woods, said the figures have been revamped to about $600,000 to $650,000.
The dollar figures drew gasps from several members of the audience. “This is not Morocco,” said Gerry Jolicouer of Rainy River.
Singleton responded, “If we do it half-way and they (locums) don’t come we spent (money) for nothing.”
Singleton added, “Doctors are used to a higher standard of living.” The current rental accommodations, a house on the highway near the railway tracks is not that attractive to locums.
Last fall Singleton elaborated that doctors want things to do where they go. Rainy River offers little in the form of arts and entertainment and shopping is at a minimum. With that in mind he and the committee felt that building on the town’s largest attraction, the river, would be something to make up for the lack of other amenities.
Vaughn Murray of Rainy River said, “I am not against this but the costs seem high. “I would think that somewhere in the neighbourhood of $350,000 to $450,000 would be more realistic.”
It was pointed out that without locums to back up the full time doctors at Rainy River Health Centre, the 24 hour emergency room could be closed part of the time or even permanently. At present the community is allocated two full time contracts. That means the two drs. have to each cover the ER 182.5 days a year. “This is not an ideal situation,” explained Singleton. “This is one and two doctors (covering the ER). One and five is considered ideal.”
Couple that with the fact that some locums are not comfortable covering an ER, especially with no help, the list of locums that will come to Rainy River shortens dramatically. “We need to attract them here,” said Singleton, “And I think Rainy River House will do that.”
In addition to the strain on the two full time doctors, one of them, Dr. Albert Beller, announced that he will be leaving Rainy River later this year. Fortunately one of the locums that has been coming here, Dr. Chu, said that she would be willing to come to Rainy River but only wants to work half time as she is starting a family. That leaves only Singleton as full time. “With a steady stream of locums we can keep things going here,” he said.
Singleton said that he and his wife, Laura, are willing to commit to at least staying in Rainy River for another five years if Rainy River House works. He did say that when the stream of locums dried up in 2005 he nearly resigned then.
Now other communities, including Red Lake, have already opened similar facilities to make locums’ stays comfortable and enticing.
To date Rainy River, Lake of the Woods, Dawson, Big Grassy First Nation and Morely have all contributed seed funding to get the project moving. The first four have contributed $25,000 each and the latter $12,500 as some of their citizens choose to go to Emo rather than Rainy River for medical care.
The Rainy River House Committee has decided to try and fund raise and will kick things off with a banquet May 14th. It is hoped that the public will see this as a just cause and be as generous as they have been in past projects like the new hospital in Rainy River and the CT Scanner in Fort Frances.
While there was a great deal of talk about attracting and retaining locums, the Record asked if there are any efforts in play to attract full time doctors. Singleton said that he and Beller have had an ad in several journals and have had little response. However, there was no indication that the affected communities have reignited doctor recruitment committees like they had when faced with Doctors Rytwinski and Oldfield leaving in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
As for a time line for construction of Rainy River House, the committee has entered into what Singleton called “A handshake agreement” with a party for three lots on the river just west of 6th St. They are looking at a cost of $90,000 for the lots.
Why do they need three lots? Rainy River House will be about 3,000 square feet and would not fit on a single lot. Using about a lot and a half, the remainder of the property has been offered to Dr. Chu for free, providing she agrees to stay for five years.
Why is the house so large? About 1,600 sq. ft will be for the locums and the balance will be to house Northern Ontario Medical School students. Rainy River House Committee member Laura Singleton said, “We have had a reply from David Marsh, Associate Dean of Community Engagement. He said: ‘I have had the chance to review it with Jeannette Salmi, the manager at NOSM who is responsible for the housing arrangements for our learner placements. Overall it is a very interesting proposal and we see benefits to the school, learners and the community. Jeannette will be in touch with you in the coming days to review some specific details and hopefully to finalize the arrangements.’”
Dr. Singleton said that the locum portion is large enough to allow locums to bring their families here to stay with them in the hopes that it may attract them to stay permanently. That is how Singleton ended up here. “We stayed at Oak Grove Camp (he and his wife and kids) and had a working vacation,” said his wife Laura. They fell in love with Rainy River and settled here.
Laura said that they did an informal poll of the regular locums that come here to see how Rainy River House sounded to them. “Four of the eight or nine regulars responded. Three said they would come and bring their families and one said they were okay with whatever we did.”
Pat Giles said, “People will have to dig into their pockets. You don’t want to run to Fort Frances for medical needs. We need to look after our families here.”
John Sinninghe of Dawson Township, said, “I think they (municipalities/First Nations) should put in more money.”
When it was asked why the communities don’t go and borrow the money, committee members said they would like to see how much they can fund raise to lesson the burden on taxpayers.
Gordon Prost of Rainy River said, “What’s the difference if you put a special levy on the taxes or ask me to donate?”
Jack Elliott, who’s wife Norma is spearheading fund-raising efforts, said, “That is an issue to leave for the fund-raising committee.”
Dr. Singleton said, "I do not think anything should be left off the table."
For now plans are in the works to kick off fund-raising on May 14th (See ad elsewhere in the paper).
Kenora-Rainy River Member of Provincial Parliament Howard Hampton was at the meeting and suggested that funding could come from either the Ontario Trillium Foundation or the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. He seemed to lean towards Trillium saying, “Health and community wellness are part of the criteria for it.”
“There are no guarantees they will come. But if we do this we can say we did all we could,” concluded Dr. Singleton.