NADCO area patients given priority
- Details
- Published on Thursday, August 27, 2015
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Neepawa Banner
On Sept. 8, Dr. Nichelle Desilets will begin taking patients at the Beautiful Plains Community Clinic. While she is taking new patients, those who live outside the area will have to wait a little longer to get their name on her patient list.
The medical clinic is owned and operated by NADCO, which is funded by the Town of Neepawa and the municipalities of Rosedale, North Cypress-Langford and Glenella-Lansdowne. With many area residents in need of a family doctor, for the moment, only patients who live in a NADCO partner municipality are able to book appointments.
Dr. George Ong, of the Beautiful Plains Medical Clinic, explained that there has been a lot of demand from people looking for a new physician and her calendar is filling into December. He said that while they are tying to accommodate everyone, they are prioritizing people who live within the area and whose municipalities have supported the clinic.
Dr. Ong explained that those who live outside the partner municipalities, such as residents of Gladstone or Minnedosa, will not be able to schedule an appointment. While they can’t book appointments, they will be put on a waiting list.
Dr. Ong added that to begin with, Dr. Desilets will be seeing fewer patients a day in order to spend more time getting to know her new patients. “It takes time to get to know people,” he said. Dr Ong added that because she is also spending time in surgery, she isn’t always available to see patients at the clinic.
There has been some backlash from residents outside the NADCO area, as people believe that health care should be universally accessible. While the province of Manitoba, the federal government and Prairie Mountain Health all had representatives participate in the grand opening of the clinic, none of these agencies provided any funding towards the clinic purchase, renovation or expansion. In contrast, PMH has invested $2.4 million into the purchase and renovation of a clinic in Swan River.
