Expanding Community Cancer Care

Still waiting on answers from the top.

By Terrie Welwood

For the Four-Town Journal.

“On September 16th of last year,  the cancer took him. But for 4 1/2 years, the cancer didn’t get to control him. He  was able to live a normal life at home under Community Cancer Care’s  watchful eye. Cancer didn’t get to take away four more planting seasons,  four  more  harvest or   four more calving seasons.  Butch had  4 1/2 years with his son guiding and teaching him,  slowly turning the reins of the farm into his very capable hands. Rarely did he miss any of his grandsons’ hockey or football games, guitar recitals or band concerts.   He got to attend his second son’s wedding and got to see his grandsons first car.  For 4 1/2 years our lives revolve around Community Cancer Care and  he was always so grateful for the exceptional care given there.” Karen Bauer, Roblin.  

There weren’t many dry eyes in the house. 

On Tuesday evening, Karen Bauer told a gathering of about 200 people her husband’s story.  She talked about the diagnosis of multiple myeloma. Of the panic , even after the diagnosis when the Roblin farming couple was told that they probably have to find an apartment in Winnipeg for about a year, in order to be closer to treatment.   

“But we farm,” Karen recalled thinking as the HSC staff explained the upcoming changes to their lives.

  “In two weeks our herd of 135 was due to start calving. Our feeder cattle  were still in the yard and were supposed to be read to go out at week’s end.  At that point, as a farmers wife,  I knew in my heart with that much to do,  Butch wouldn’t  leave the farm and  that he would probably refuse treatment”.   

Stories like that of Butch and Karen Bauer are at the heart of Community Cancer Care. They’re the reason Community Cancer Care happens at all, providing a safe welcoming efficient and financially viable place for treatment closer to home.

That premise, is a given.    

The numbers bear out both the need and the success of the Community Cancer Care Unit. And the obvious need for an expansion.  But, as the Expanding Community Cancer Care Committee (ECCC)  said at the Feb 25^th meeting in Russell, that’s something that they’re wondering if the province or the regional health authority understands. 

The current unit in the Russell and District Health Centre  is approximately 510 ft.²  and has been operational since 2015. The Community Cancer care staff there has had over 1,500 visits per year since 2015.

“It’s highly effective and caring in a wonderful place to be but it’s just too small,” ECCC president Gloria Tibbatts  told the crowd.

“Currently, the area for  office storage  and for IV poles is  in the shower stall, there’s no wheelchair accessible washroom, the waiting room is in the hallway and all patients much must enter through the outpatient and general public waiting room.  There’s limited privacy in a crowded area where treatments are administered, a very small desk and work area for two nurses and two doctors and a part time ward clerk. There’s no area for a staff washroom or storage of valuables.           

Treatments, she added, literally take hours to complete in one of the four patient reclining chairs stationed less than three feet apart.  There is no room for family to sit, wait or visit.

By mid June of 2016,a committee has been struck looking into the renovation/expansion of the Community Cancer Care unit in Russell. The committee was informed by Prairie Mountain Health that a new build would not be possible but a renovation might be, but with no financial help from Prairie Mountain Health, that would been raising somewhere between $300,000 And $650,000.

And fundraising began. And it flourished. Through more bake sales and paint nights and hockey games than most can remember- and amazingly generous donations of time and cash- fundraising has now brought in $1.3 million. Which is about what the ECCC committee had been told they would need.

The completion of a feasibility study in January 2018  outlined the of  the renovation and expansion to move from 510 square feet to 1,735  square-foot renovation,  pegging the cost at 1.1 million. 

“The drawing did not meet the requirements for the chemo unit as requested by the committee“ Gloria Tibbatts, president of the expanding community Cancer care committee(ECCCC) told the crowd. 

“There was no private entrance, no bathroom for visitors or staff and a little room for storage in the waiting room. ECCC was not happy with the results and after speaking with Prairie Mountain Health on a conference call, the committee decided that for the outrages price of $1.1 million on a 1,400 square-foot reno – without even moving any outside walls, we would be better off with a new build.” 

On March 14 of 2018, under the instructions of Prairie Mountain Health, the committee went to Manitoba Health for approval, with the help of MLA Greg Nesbitt. The project was given verbal approval by the Minister of Health Kelvin Goertzen who then sent them back to the Health Authority to go through their proper channels looking for permission to construct an approximately 2,000 square-foot building to be attached via vestibule to the south wing of the Russell Health Centre. 

The committee was informed by Prairie Mountain Health that it’s August 28,2018 application will take 5 to 6 weeks for approval. And they’re still waiting.

The new year began with no answers.  There was a new provincial Minister of Health to be brought up to speed.  After a tour of the proposed site, the group was informed that the minister would not give either them or Prairie Mountain Health an answer until the Rural  Health Study was completed that June the fall of last year with both a federal and provincial election, left questions still unanswered. 

As of the February 25^th meeting, Tibbatts said the committee is still waiting for answers.

The numbers are there, the will is there and the money is there.

“ A plan by Cancer Care Manitoba for 2016 – 2021 advises that the province needs to be prepared for 50% increase in the number of people diagnosed and living with cancer in the next decade, “Tibbatts said.   “Almost half of those people will be over the age of 70 and the  same report states  that this area has the highest percentage of senior age people in the province.”

Tibbatts says the committee is both frustrated and dumbfounded at the lack of response from the Health Authority and the province of Manitoba

“ECCC wants to make the small portion of the province provide our communities with the most updated, safe, secure and functional facility to provide chemotherapy to the people who will require the service,“ she said. 

“ When the hospital was built in 1971, originally the building provided 14 services and 34 cute beds. That same area now provides 21 services and has 30 acute beds,” Tibbatts explained. 

The project requires no land purchase as  that has already been done and enough space is available on site, Tibbatts added that a progressive facility such as Russell’s where a large variety of  medical services are offered is a definite plus to recruiting doctors and nurses.

“In terms of healthcare,the ECCC and the surrounding communities cannot understand why government would not approve such a project when we ask for no money, ask for no expansion in service, only the capacity to enlarge service if required in the future the committee will cover the entire cost and then donate the building to the health authority.”

“It makes absolutely no sense.” 

As the wait for answers continues, the fundraising will not stop.  With no concrete numbers from the powers that be – and a bunch of experience in how quickly things can change – the ECCC committee has now set its fundraising goal at $3 million.

And they continue to wait for an answer.