A member of West-Interlake's Health Advisory Committee is expressing concern over the recent changes being implemented by the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority. Keith Lundale says the move away from nurse managed care is only creating more problems, and could be putting residents at risk.

The IERHA announced earlier this month they'd be acquiring doctor's schedules at least a month in advance, and posting them both online, and making the information available through a toll-free number. They intend to have only emergency rooms with doctors on staff accepting new patients, but those without doctors won't be turning anyone who comes to the doors away. The goal of the changes is to move away from the previous practice, which had emergency rooms under nurse managed care, with access to on-call doctors in other facilities by phone. The practice, which was supposed to be a temporary solution to doctor shortages was in place for many years, before doctors began threatening to pull out if it didn't come to an end, leading to the recent changes.

Lundale feels these changes aren't feasible, and won't address the need for medical assistance in a crisis. While the ERs won't technically be closed, Lundale says without access to a doctor, they may as well be. He fears the new plans could result in an overflow of patients going to the doctor-staffed hospitals, which could once again result in diversions.

"The systemic problem in having one ER in our region is the constant flux of whether the ER is actually open, or on diversion, and there's no guarantee."

He says even the posting of emergency rooms schedules is a misguided step, even if the schedules are available a month or more in advance. Lundale says when it comes to a life or death situation, just how accessible those schedules are won't matter.

"If your mother was having a heart attack in front of you would you be in the mindset to look up the 1-800 number. How many people are going to write that down, put in in their wallet, or be able to have it in a convenient location, as opposed to just having to call 911 for help? Realistically, that's how it should be."

Even IERHA CEO Ron Van Denakker described the recent changes as a band-aid solution, noting between the doctor shortage and the physicians that are in the region threatening to pull out if nurse managed care continued, they had to put something in place. However, Lundale feels these changes only put people in more danger, adding there needs to be a way to continue to maintain medical services at all of the region's ERs.

"I really think we're at risk of losing people unnecessarily in treating their medical issues because of lack of resources. Somebody is going to die."

Van Denakker notes with the issue of doctor shortages now a problem for many years, the province also needs to step up their support for the region. The IERHA is one of the lowest funded RHAs in Manitoba, receiving about half of what others receive. However, the issue of doctor retention is also linked to education, with Van Denakker suggesting the creation of a teaching hospital would greatly increase the number of local doctors. However, Lundale says the idea has merit but is at least a decade away so something needs to be done in the meantime.