RED LAKE -- The emergency department at Red Lake's Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital is back up and running following a 24-hour shutdown last weekend as a result of a lack of physicians.
There is potential for a repeat incident there or at another hospital in the region is very real according to officials with the hospital.
Chief of Staff doctor Akila Whiley says the community deserves better.
“The fact that we have to make a decision to close an emergency department for an entire community who are not expecting it. They deserve better than that. This community deserves far better than that,” Wiley said.
Whiley has been practicing at the Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital in Red Lake for just less than two years and says the decision the close the ER for 24 hours on March 26 due to a lack of physician coverage was disappointing, but also sees it as a chance to start a dialogue.
“In making light of the whole situation, a lot of education is coming from it, opportunities like this to talk about it and inform our communities that, you know, we really are in dire circumstances, and we are starting to get very very tired keeping our departments open,” she added.
The closure meant anyone in Red Lake or nearby Ear Falls would have to travel to Dryden some two and half hours away for emergency care, which did occur as two ambulances were dispatched from the base in Red Lake.
A statement from the Kenora District Services Board, which provides operates the region's ambulances, says that left the community without ambulance service for several hours.
The hospital’s CEO, Sue LeBeau, says a key problem is a discrepancy between the number of doctors dedicated to the community based upon its population vs. the number of people who use hospital and its emergency department.
“So, we are rated for seven, and that includes all the primary care that has to be done. I mentioned a while ago that we support about 6,000 residents, but what’s not counted in there are the miners that fly in, fly out, for instance there’s a whole contingence as well, that does that,” said LeBeau.
“Tourism is another one, when we see tourism ramp up again our population can get significantly large in the summer.”
Red Lake's chief administrative officer Mark Vermette says following the announcement of the ER closure, the Municipality declared a state of emergency to bring awareness to the situation.
“This shouldn’t happen in Red Lake and it shouldn’t happen in any other community, so we are very concerned and we are looking for insurances that this does not happen in the future.”
While the crisis has subsided, hospital officials stress unless significant changes are made from a human resource perspective another closer of Red Lake’s ER or another ER here in the northwest will only be a matter of time.
