KENORA – A “critical shortage” of physicians has the Lake of the Woods District Hospital’s emergency department on the brink of closure, hospital officials say.
The hospital has gone from having 20 physicians who worked in emergency in early 2022 to just nine part-time ER docs today, according to a news release on Wednesday.
“The critical shortage of physicians we are experiencing has created a situation which is unsustainable,” said Dr. Sean Moore, the Kenora hospital’s chief of staff.
“Without significant change to our health-care system, I cannot see how it is physically possible for such a small group of doctors to maintain our current services,” said Dr. Meghan Olson, medical staff president on the hospital’s board of directors.
Emergency is being kept alive largely via locum physicians, doctors who come to Kenora from elsewhere to fill in temporarily. Three-quarters of physician shifts in emergency are covered by locums.
Dr. Laurel Snyder, the hospital’s emergency services lead, said that’s “a stop-gap measure that is in no way sustainable in the long run.”
The emergency department isn’t the only part of local health care in a bad way, according to hospital officials.
They said the recent loss of one more physician and the impending retirement of others will leave thousands of area residents without primary care.
As well, physician funding for First Nation communities is set to expire in a few months.
Greg Rickford, Kenora-Rainy River’s member of provincial parliament and a member of the Progressive Conservative government’s cabinet, told Dougall Media in an email Wednesday that the province is “at a critical point in negotiations on a physician service agreement” and he is “hopeful for a resolution” soon.
Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa, whose riding comprises much of Ontario’s North, said what’s happening in the Kenora area is like the situation in the North generally.
“In Northern Ontario, the health-care system is, all over, on the brink of collapse,” he said.
“And the region of Kenora is represented by a member of the cabinet. And they should be able to address that issue, but they’re not,” continued Mamakwa, a New Democrat.
“The North gets forgotten,” he said.
The Kenora hospital’s public statements about a doctor shortage came less than two weeks after physicians in a small community to the south gave notice that they are withdrawing services.
Three physicians posted a statement Aug. 22 on Facebook saying they “will no longer be providing hospital services” at the Rainy River Health Centre after Sept. 30.
Riverside Health Care, the Rainy River hospital’s operator, is “diligently filling the spots for coverage until the end of October” with locum physicians at the facility, Rainy River Mayor Deborah Ewald said Wednesday.
“Then we’re hoping to hear back more from the Ministry (of Health) about what’s going to happen long-term,” she said.
