Samantha Farrell says the emergency department in Steinbach has effectively become her doctor’s office.
Without a family doctor or the means to travel to Winnipeg, she only gets medical care when she cannot wait any longer.
Since losing her family doctor in 2020, Farrell has gone to the ER in the southeastern Manitoba city three times to cope with ovarian cyst pain, including last month, when a cyst ruptured.
“It really shouldn’t be that way,” she said. “I mean, Steinbach’s considered a city — why don’t we have a doctor, or many?”
There are about 10 physician vacancies in the Steinbach area, and 3,500 people are looking for a doctor through the province’s family doctor finder program, according to Southern Health, the regional health authority that covers the area.
People in the Steinbach region who register for that program are being informed that there are no physicians accepting patients in their area, Southern Health confirmed in a statement.
Steinbach’s population is nearly 18,000 people, according to 2021 census data — up by 1,800 people from the 2016 census. Thousands more live in surrounding communities.
Farrell said it’s frustrating the emergency department at Steinbach’s Bethesda Hospital has become her only choice.
“I shouldn’t have had to go to the ER for a ruptured cyst. It should never have happened. And here I’m a stress on the ER department that has a waiting room full of people,” she said.
“All they can do for me is book me for an ultrasound later, get me some painkillers and send me home with a list of, ‘If this happens, come back.'”
Clinic shutdown
Farrell said having a doctor who could provide her with routine preventative medical treatment, like Pap smears or blood work, might help her avoid future medical problems. But she’s been told family physicians in Steinbach cannot accept any more patients.
Same-day appointments at a clinic, if you can get them, aren’t sufficient because doctors will try to book her for routine tests in Winnipeg, Farrell said — a roughly 60-kilometre drive.
She doesn’t have a vehicle and there’s no bus option. Taxi fare would be around $150, she said.
“That’s money a single mom like me doesn’t necessarily have,” said Farrell.
More people are scrambling to find a family doctor after Clearspring Medical Clinic closed its doors in the city earlier in March.
In a letter to his patients, Dr. Gordon Dyck, who has practiced for 35 years, said “vigorous recruitment efforts have failed to bring more doctors to the clinic.”
He had only been performing administrative duties since October of last year, but is now taking an indefinite leave of absence.
“It is challenging to say goodbye to you, my valued patient,” he wrote.
Dyck declined an interview while he remained on medical leave.
Steinbach Family Medical lists 22 family physicians on its website. The clinic did not respond to a request for comment by the deadline. There’s also a provincial quick care clinic and a clinic at the Walmart in Steinbach.
Part of the wider problem: Doctors Manitoba
Dr. Candace Bradshaw, president of Doctors Manitoba, said it’s telling a growing city of Steinbach’s size cannot recruit enough family physicians.
“Steinbach — [a] beautiful community, short commuting distance to and from Winnipeg. I can’t think of a nicer spot if you’re looking for a … quieter place” to practice, she said.
Two family medicine residencies in Steinbach went unfilled last week after the first round of matching graduating medical students with residency spaces across the country. Those vacancies could still be filled by international medical graduates, however.
The inability to attract doctors to such communities is “showing that this is a problem everywhere, not just Winnipeg and not just the more urban-centred locations,” said Bradshaw.
The ripple effect of physician vacancies in Steinbach is being felt in Winnipeg, she said. She’s heard clinics in Winnipeg’s south end have longer wait lists than normal.
The Manitoba government is being “out-manoeuvred” by other provinces in recruiting and retaining physicians, Bradshaw said. Earlier this month, Saskatchewan announced a rural and northern incentive of $200,000 over five years for doctors — more than four times what the province previously offered.
“You never know when another province is going to come up with a new attractive offer that depletes more of our physicians,” Bradshaw said.
A spokesperson for the Progressive Conservative government said Manitoba has added 80 physician training seats, 40 of which are set aside for internationally educated medical students.
The spokesperson said 45 physicians, along with 17 physician assistants and clinical assistants, have been hired under a $200-million health-care staffing plan announced in November, which also includes financial incentives for longer clinic hours.
Those doctors are badly needed in rural areas, say patients like Ashleigh Desaulniers.
Desaulniers lives in Mitchell and travels to see a doctor in Winnipeg, but would prefer to have a physician in Steinbach — just a five-minute drive to the east from her community.
She’s been diagnosed with Lyme disease and has struggled to find a doctor who can treat the range of medical issues she’s experiencing.
She previously “did have that rapport with my … doctor, but she just didn’t have the time,” said Desaulniers.
A couple of years ago, it reached the point where she couldn’t get access to her doctor anymore, she said. She had to wait six weeks to book an appointment, as her medical issues kept getting worse. She tried without success to book walk-in appointments.
“I would love to have a doctor out here that I can actually access, who might actually listen to me and have time for me and know who I am,” said Desaulniers.
Meanwhile, Farrell waits for a doctor himself, but she isn’t getting her hopes up. Every month, she gets an email from the province’s family doctor finder service that says no progress has been made.
She’s starting to treat these messages like junk mail, she said.
Samantha Farrell says the emergency department in Steinbach, Man., has effectively become her doctor’s office. She’s among 3,500 people in the area who are looking for a doctor through the province’s family doctor finder program, according to Southern Health.