Emergency care during the holidays a rare gift for some rural Manitobans

Some rural Manitobans who need emergency care during the holidays will need to travel farther for treatment.

The emergency room at the Eriksdale hospital in the Interlake region has been open sporadically for months.Now it will be closed through the holidays because of staff shortages.

That worries Thelma Hogue, whose husband had a heart attack last year and had to be taken to Ashern. He didn't survive.

Hogue doesn't want others to have the same experience.

"It seems that once the government decides to close something, it doesn't matter how people try to fight it," she said.

"They do what they want to do anyway, and you know, we're just peons. They don't care about us little guys."

Keith Lundale of the Highway 6 Advocacy Group says people often have to drive right past Eriksdale to get emergency care.

"They would have to go to Ashern, which is an almost an hour away, and only to be now triaged and sent back to a higher care in Winnipeg or Selkirk," he said.

Community advocates expect a meeting in January with Premier Wab Kinewand Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara. One of Kinew's election promises was to build a new ER in Eriksdale.

A spokesperson for Prairie Mountain Health, the health region insouthwestern Manitoba, said temporary suspensions of emergency care can occur due to a shortage of qualified staff nursing, diagnostic and physician resources which is affected by factors like vacancies, staff leaves, retirements and vacations.

"Health care recruitment and retention will always be a challenge and a key focus for us," the statement said.

"We are competing with health regions across provinces for health human resources across all sectors. It's a constant ebb and flow as it relates to recruitment. Just when we recruit health-care professionals to one community or area, we have vacancies pop up in another."

Regional health authority emergency department schedules can be found in the following links:

• Interlake-Eastern.
• Southern Health-Sant Sud.
• Prairie Mountain Health.
• WHRA.