Thessalon in jeopardy of closing ER over holiday season, could lose its 2 doctors by March

The doctor shortage in northern Ontario is hitting a small town east of Sault Ste. Marie especially hard this winter.

The four-bed medical clinic in Thessalon may have to close down entirely between Dec. 25 and Jan. 4 due to a lack of physicians.

The clinic is supposed to have four main doctors meeting the health care needs of patients, but for the past two years there have only been two on duty. Now those two doctors are contemplating leaving due to burnout.

The Thessalon clinic is one of three operated by the North Shore Health Network (NSHN). There are also clinics in Blind River and Richard's Landing. All three have 24-hour, seven day a week emergency department coverage.

"We can not have an emergency department open without a physician," said Richard Joly, CEO of NSHN.

"[The doctor shortage] has been going on for several years, so this is not just something that happened yesterday," he added.

The management and accountability of contracts for physicians at the clinic is handled through the Ministry of Health, but Joly says NSHN does work collaboratively with the ministry.

The clinics use locum coverage when physicians are not able to cover.  

"We face, I think now a crisis immediately after Christmas and going into the first week of New Years," Joly said, adding that there is a real threat the clinic will close during that time. 

 "The likelihood of having a physician is dwindling away, there's no doubt."

There is coverage for the other two NSHN sites.

To add to the problem, Joly says likely by March the Thessalon clinic will have no physicians at all, since the two doctors have currently on staff have expressed interest in moving on.

"We will work collaboratively with our two partners — Ontario Health North and the Ministry of Health — to identify medium to long term solutions for ensuring that Thessalon ED remains open and that Thesssalon and surrounding areas have access to care just like any other community," he said. 

Joly says if Thessalon is left without any physicians next year the status of the hospital is unknown.

The closest hospital is in Blind River, which is 50 kilometres east of Thessalon. Sault Ste. Marie is roughly 90 kilometres to the west.

"If you send all the volume from Thessalon to Blind River, Blind River will quickly become overwhelmed, no doubt." Joly said.

"That would throw a pretty big monkey wrench into the whole health network because Blind River, St. Joseph Island and the Sault, they can't take that overload of patients," said Bill Rosenberg, mayor of Thessalon.

"This is a vast area. This isn't just Thessalon itself, it's the area surrounding it, right, we're rural," he added.

The other aspect that makes it important that Thessalon keep its hospital open is its location to Highway 17, a major highway.

The Thessalon clinic also serves an adjacent seniors facility, which would also be without medical services should the doctors leave.

There is a full time recruiter at the North Shore Health Network who works to recruit physicians and locum physicians.

"Right now I think the locums are the short term solution," Rosenberg said.

"Trying to recruit doctors to come to northern Ontario —I mean it's not the big city so it has to be a special person who wants to do rural health care."

The North Shore Health Network must notify the community by Dec. 17 if Thessalon will be without doctors over the Christmas holiday.