Further to yesterday’s post, please feel free to utilize the following letter template to communicate your concerns to Manitoba Minister of Health Audrey Gordon on the situation with the Glenboro Health Centre.
There are printed copies available from the Glenboro Pharmacy, Rimmer Technology Partners, and by tomorrow I believe that there will be copies in the Glenboro Building Centre if you prefer to pick up a hard copy, or feel free to print this, or copy and edit as you would like, and send. Be sure to include the date, and your signature and contact information. We want the Minister’s office to understand that the people of our community are all concerned with this issue. Signed copies with clear contact information will hold more weight with that office, I believe.
February _____, 2023
The Honourable Audrey Gordon
Minister of Health, Province of Manitoba
302 Legislative Building
450 Broadway
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0V8
Dear Minister Gordon:
I am writing to you today to highlight the abysmal state of health care in our province, the ongoing concerns with the shortage of doctors, nurses, and other trained medical staff in the rural areas of Manitoba, and the pressures under which our existing health care providers are working due to these shortages.
My community of Glenboro has recently been informed by our health region, Prairie Mountain Health, that they will be “pulling back service immediately” and “are no longer able to provide ER services in Glenboro.” This is due to the ongoing shortage of doctors and the health region’s inability to procure doctors to cover our area of rural Manitoba. I recognize that this is a much wider issue than our local area, but something must be done.
Currently, there are four countries which are sources of international recruitment where physicians, specifically, may relocate from who are deemed “practice ready” by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. As a taxpayer in the Province of Manitoba, I am requesting that you, in your office of Minister of Health, encourage the College to either relax these requirements in the face of this public health emergency or, alternatively, address the shortage which is resulting in these closures by allowing alternatives such as qualified Nurse Practitioners to be granted the privileges currently only allowed to physicians in areas for which physicians cannot be found.
Residents of Manitoba require, and deserve, health care. Until we can address the long-term solutions to this problem, we must do something to avert the crisis which we are currently facing. I would appreciate it if you could please respond with regard to Manitoba’s action plan on the requirement of doctors and nurses, or with a policy change for acceptance of a broader scope for the “ready to work” requirements in the province.
Thank you,
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