WINNIPEG – To Ron Bell, losing the hospital in his town means more than having to drive at least 32 kilometres down the road to see a doctor.
The mayor of Birtle, a western Manitoba town of 825, believes new residents and businesses would also drive past if the hospital is closed.
“A hospital means everything to the health of the community,” Bell said. “Without a hospital, we can’t attract any more people to the area very easily … growth is just about impossible.”
Birtle has been aggressively promoting the advantages of its small-town life in large urban centres. So when rumors recently started that its 19-bed hospital was on the chopping block, Bell said people became worried.
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So far, the rumors are just rumors, said hospital administrator Ted Bartlett. But the community is meeting Feb. 19 to talk about coming changes in health care and plan strategy to make sure its hospital doesn’t shut.
Sue Hicks, an associate deputy health minister, said change is inevitable in the way the province spends money on health care.
Hicks estimated the province needs to find savings in the range of $75 million a year for the next couple of years because of less money coming from the federal government.
However, she said rural areas have less to worry about than Winnipeg, where most health-care dollars are spent.
“I don’t think that the major cuts are going to affect rural (health care) that much,” Hicks said, adding the government has no plans to close rural hospitals.
“I think what we’d like to look at is using hospitals more effectively.”
Robert Butternowsky, a lawyer who works in Birtle and nearby Rossburn and Russell, said rural health care is about to change for the better.
He has been appointed chair of a new regional health association that will decide how money is spent in the Marquette region, population 37,000, which includes Birtle.
“The issue here is whether (health care) gets changed out of decisions from Winnipeg, or it gets changed by the people who have to use the system in that region,” said Butternowsky.
“And I think this represents the chance to bring power back to the people.”
Butternowsky said people tend to focus on whether they have a hospital, rather than the quality of care they receive.
“Bricks and mortar don’t necessarily make health care,” he said, adding a good clinic plus services like home care could be better than a poor hospital.
Bartlett said cutting the number of beds in his hospital wouldn’t save much money. Although the hospital is full only 60 percent of the time, it has minimum staffing.
“It is false economics to try to suggest that you’re going to save a bunch of money by closing a bunch of beds in the rural areas,” he said, adding people still need to go somewhere when they get sick.
Bartlett said the hospital shares some services with other towns and could look at sharing more.
