Just the facts

The quality of health care is a critical issue to any community, whether in a major city like Toronto or small-town Fort Frances. As such, the public is right to demand to be fully informed of the situation at the Fort Frances Community Clinic and, more specifically, on the efforts to recruit more doctors here.
Clearly people are concerned—as was outlined in a letter to the editor last week by local residents Allan Bedard and Bill Krukoski, which posed some legitimate questions that need answering. But in seeking to clear the air over doctor recruitment, Mr. Bedard and Mr. Krukoski were equally guilty of muddying the waters by incorrectly stating our community has lost doctors after the Family Health Team concept was adopted.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Six doctors did leave the clinic in 2005. Drs. Brain and Coholic moved to eastern Ontario in January, Dr. Laurie Kibiuk left in May, Dr. Diane Haak departed in June, and Dr. Nancy Naylor left later that summer (Dr. Cam Moorhouse was the sixth, but he continues to practise in Fort Frances so his departure did not represent a loss to the community).
What’s key is that these departures occurred several months prior to the town hall-style meeting that was held at the Memorial Sports Centre auditorium in which the merits of a Family Health Team were presented to the public. The fact is, the only doctor who has left since that meeting is Dr. Jas Spencer (retirement), who subsequently was replaced by Dr. Carole Spread, making for no net loss.
If anything, it can be argued the eventual switch to the Fort Frances Community Clinic, aided by the $1-million loan from the town (which continues to be paid back as required under the 15-year, interest-free deal), has served to retain doctors, not drive them away as was wrongly inferred by Mr. Bedard and Mr. Krukoski.
As well, the community has seen the addition of two nurse practitioners (Marlis Thiessen and Cathy Bock), who reportedly have seen some 6,000 patients in just four months’ time—obviously alleviating the workload of the remaining doctors. And that’s not to mention several health-care programs the local clinic can now offer.
There’s no question efforts to recruit more doctors have not produced glowing results, but equally obvious is that Fort Frances is not alone in this quandary. The town has taken the right step in ordering a review of doctor recruitment (through the Rainy River Future Development Corp.) to ensure taxpayers are getting the bang for their bucks that go into the fund each year, although whether a better model can be found—and it succeeds—remains to be seen.
Is our current doctor shortage a “crisis?” Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft, for one, doesn’t think so, arguing at Monday night’s council meeting that “my opinion of a crisis is you cannot get a doctor’s appointment, there’s no one in emergency, there’s no one in the clinic to serve you.” Well, getting to that stage is akin to scrambling to find a way to close the barn door after the horses have left.
Rather, a “crisis” mentality is precisely what’s needed to develop solutions today, not tomorrow.
What has been lacking, however, is an open, factual debate. The result is rumours, innuendo, half-truths, and misinformation that don’t solve problems but compound them.