Today, the Council of Glenboro South Cypress and a few community members met with representatives from Prairie Mountain Health, with regard to the future of the Glenboro Health Centre’s emergency care service.
The message from PMH head Brian Schoonbaert was that PMH will be pulling back on service immediately, that the region is no longer able to provide ER service in Glenboro.
The meeting went well over an hour, and many things were discussed. I will be putting out a more detailed report in the coming days, but with this hitting social media, I wanted to let the community know that we are doing something.
The Health Action Committee was invited to this meeting, and Terry Dubyts and I, as co-chairs of that group, attended. We did have an open conversation with Mr Schoonbaert and the other representatives from PMH, and hope that we can have some impact on this change. This change is entirely due to the rampant shortage of doctors and other medical professionals which is being felt across the entire country.
Again, I will get something with more details out as soon as I can, but I wanted to address this quickly, and let the community know that I am currently drafting a template letter which will be available in the next few days for those interested to either print off or pick up a printed copy, sign, and mail in to both the Minister of Health and our MLA, which will be a basic outline of what is happening here, and our request for some kind of emergency action to be taken.
Secondarily, the Health Action Committee will be meeting again within the week, and will be reviewing both our recruitment efforts, and what our next steps will be, given the prospective changes. Again, there are factors that I am not addressing here, but will in a more detailed posting in the coming days.
For now, there are several things that interested community members can do:
1. Pick up a copy of the template letter and mail it to the Minister of Health and your MLA.
2. Write your own letter to the Minister of Health.
3. Buy tickets to the HAC 50/50 Valentine’s Day draw — available at local businesses and also by contacting a Health Action Committee member — to help us fund recruitment and support for our medical professionals in Glenboro — and now, to help fund this campaign.
More details will be coming, I promise you, but in the meantime, if you feel like doing something immediately, I suggest #2 — and this is who to send it to:
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