RAINY RIVER – Mayor Deborah Ewald said Tuesday her town, the Ontario government and the local hospital’s operator are working together to get through an impending crisis in physician services.
Provincial, local and First Nations officials recently met with the chief executive officer of Riverside Health Care, which operates the Rainy River Health Centre – and “it was a good meeting,” Ewald said in an interview with Dougall Media.
“They’re actively recruiting now. It’s just kind of a wait-and-see,” she said.
“Riverside has assured us that they will have doctor coverage for the emergency (department) here,” she added. “So that’s good.”
Dr. Joseph Ennett, Rainy River Medical Clinic’s lead physician, issued a signed statement last week saying he and the clinic’s two other doctors “will no longer be providing hospital services” at the health centre in Rainy River after Sept. 30.
Ennett also said Dr. Tatiana Jilkina and Dr. Catherine Caron will cease providing services at the clinic after that date but he will continue to work there until the end of November.
The doctors are making plans to withdraw their services “with the hope that the (Ministry of Health) will alter the funding arrangement to allow the clinic to function independently of hospital responsibilities,” according to Ennett’s statement.
Ennett said the doctors’ contract with the ministry requires them to provide all-day coverage in the hospital’s emergency department, “and under the current conditions we are unable to continue to do that adequately and safely.”
The news from the doctors was “totally unexpected,” Ewald said Tuesday. “It was just a Facebook post and that was it.”
She said it appears the workload “has gotten to be too much” for the physicians, who fly in from other parts of Ontario to provide round-the-clock coverage at the clinic and hospital.
“It would be nice if we had doctors who lived in the community,” she said.
“I know it’s a small community, but it’s a beautiful area and it’s got good schools and all the rest of it.
“If people gave it a chance, I’m sure they would find it very nice.”
The physicians’ move comes as the area copes with a shortage of paramedics.
