Dr. recruitment #1 item on Mayor's 2012 agenda

By Ken Johnston
Editor

While many other district Mayors and Reeves are optimistic about the future, Rainy River Mayor Deb Ewald has the community’s doctor situation sitting on the front burner and she is concerned.
With last week’s announcement that the community’s last full time doctor has given his notice that he will leave the town in June of 2013, Ewald said, “The locum house is now on the back burner. Doctor recruitment and retention are number one!”
Ewald said that the situation has her extremely concerned. “I have had sleepless nights worrying that someone could die if there is no emergency services available here. I know I can not do anything personally, but it makes me sick to think about.”
A doctor recruitment committee was struck by the town last summer when Dr. Beller was leaving and it was learned that the intended replacement (at least half-time) Dr. Chu was backing out of coming to Rainy River. “We are now redoubling our efforts to find doctors to come here,” said Ewald. “We did have one student who was interested in coming but he has decided to take one more year of schooling.” So at best that puts him at least 1.5 years away from coming.
Ewald said that efforts at the regional level to address another issue regarding doctors is also underway. “There is an inequity in how emergency room salaries are funded. How can we be expected to compete with Fort Frances or other communities where they get more money to work in ER?” She said that, “There needs to be a level playing field.”
Rainy River has Ministry of Health Funding for two full time doctors. They are expected to run the clinic and cover 24 hour emergency and do rounds at the long term care and acute care facility in the community.
So what would happen if there is no full time doctors in Rainy River? Mayor Ewald said that over the holidays there was a day where there was no ER coverage. “Riverside has had communications with Baudette’s hospital to see if they would accept patients in an emergency. They agreed, but the plan was nixed when the province said it would not pay for the services.”
Baudette is only a mile away over the border. The alternative for emergency patients in Rainy River, Stratton and Morson areas is Fort Frances. That could be up to 90 miles for people in the Morson area.
In the late 1960s when Rainy River had no doctors emergencies were dealt with in Baudette and paid for by the province.
The Record contacted Kenora-RR Member of Provincial Parliament, Sarah Campbell, on Friday to see if there is anything that can be done to change the province’s position on the Baudette coverage in the event it was needed. But she had not responded by press time.
As for caring for the Long Term Care patients at Rainy River Health Centre, Mayor Ewald said that Riverside Health Care Facilities is working on a solution.
While the locum house has taken a back seat in urgency for Mayor Ewald, she still feels it is a necessity. “We are always going to need to provide relief for our full time doctors. Rainy River House will give us an edge in attracting locums and if it is in place we can show prospective doctors that we are working to give them help when needed.”
Other irons in the fire
Mayor Ewald also said that Rainy River has had other irons in the fire that are showing promise. One is the new sewer system. The new lift station and lagoon is functioning well. “We just have to get the fencing done and then we can have the final review.” If all goes well she expects the Ministry of Environment order against any new development in Rainy River could be lifted as soon as this summer. “This could be a real boom to us with the mining activity to the east. We will be in a good position for people to locate here.”
The Assisted Living program at Riverview Manor is in its second year now of two years of funding. Ewald said that council will work hard to lobby for a continuation of the funding for the project. “This was a pilot project and hopefully the province sees the benefits of it and continues to support it.”
The Rainy River Trails project also came on line last year and Ewald sees that as a real feather in the community’s cap. “I have walked them and I feel they are beautiful and may get people to stop and spend more time in the community.” The first phase of them will be done this spring. “The committee deserves a lot of credit for getting them done!”
Concerns for the future
Besides the Dr. situation and a need for new development here, Mayor Ewald said that the provincial report coming out later this month, being done by Don Drummond, has had some scary connotations already.
Reported in other media, there is speculation that there could be 10-30% cuts in some government agencies/programs. “Even 10% cuts could be really tough on small communities. We are already running bare bones budgets. Where will the money come from? Especially when we have such a small tax base here.”
She, also the president of the Rainy River District Municipal Association, expect it to be a hot topic of discussion at the upcoming Annual General Meeting of RRDMA in Devlin.
Overall Ewald concluded, “You do the best you can with what you have. Dr. recruitment is the number 1 priority. It is the goal.”