Doctor shortages to force ER closures

Press Release from
Rainy River Health Care Committee

Rainy River, Ontario is now facing the prospect of Emergency Room closures due to a physician shortage. Recently, one of the two contract doctors in this northwestern town resigned with two months’ notice. As of October 3, there will be only one physician in a community that has a clinic with a catchment area of 2,700, a 24-hour Emergency Room, and three acute-care beds.
No permanent replacement has been found, and despite every effort to find locum support to cover the position temporarily, not enough coverage is currently in place to prevent closures of the Emergency Room. The shortage will inevitably put both clinic and ER pressure on the services of the nearby towns of Emo and Fort Frances, both of which are also short-staffed.
Emergency Room closures would also have a significant negative impact on both the cost and the management of ambulance services in the area. Dan McCormick, Interim CEO of the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board and the Manager of Land Ambulance Services, told a meeting of RRDSSAP representatives last week that a permanent closure of Rainy River’s ER would cost in excess of $800,000 for the additional ambulance services that would be required to take area patients all the way to Fort Frances. This cost would be borne under an apportionment formula by all of the municipalities in the district.
Rainy River is located on Highway #11, on the Ontario-Minnesota border, at the western boundary of the province.
The hospital in Rainy River serves the town, three rural townships and two First Nations communities. Residents of the area are facing the prospect of travelling between one and two hours to the nearest emergency room, which is in Fort Frances.
Deb Ewald, Mayor of the Town of Rainy River, says the situation is serious for the medical welfare of the area. “We obviously don’t want to be another Fort Erie, where a life was lost after the Emergency Room closed,” she said.
Several of the affected communities recently formed a partnership to strengthen Rainy River’s ability to attract physician services. Recognizing their vulnerability in a time of locum shortages, this group of small rural communities has been spearheading a $650,000 project - a duplex residence near the hospital to house visiting locum doctors. They believe that having community-owned access to good quality accommodations for locums will have a significant long-term positive effect on both temporary and permanent physician staffing. Local fundraising has brought in approximately $125,000 in private and small business donations over the past four months.
Grant applications to federal and provincial funding agencies for support – the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and FedNor - were turned down, and to date no corporate sponsors have stepped up to the plate.
There is a new urgency to the initiative as the scenario local residents feared has come to pass much sooner than anyone expected. The community is redoubling its efforts, with offers of discounts from local suppliers coming in and from residents who are willing to volunteer their labour. The project is expected to be complete in the first half of 2012, but that will not likely be soon enough to help avert the first closure.
Donations to the locum house project can be made through the Rainy River Town office at 807-852-3978.