There’s some concern amongst Roblin residents following a move to relocate some of their health centre’s lab technicians to Russell.

Jana Knight is a business owner in Roblin, and tells CKDM her community was given little notice about the decision to close the Lab and X-Ray department on September 1. 

“When people here came to understand that once our lab and x-ray people are gone, then we can longer have an ER — then the urgency ramped up in our community.”

Knight has been contacting various government officials, and the Prairie Mountain Health CEO, asking for the decision to be reconsidered.

“We have 4 doctors currently in Roblin. What I don’t agree with is pulling our lab staff, thereby closing our ER and jeopardizing the four doctors we have in order to keep Russell open. I don’t want the Russell lab to close. I don’t want any lab in Manitoba to close, but I don’t think theirs should stay open and ours should close," said Knight.

She also expressed her concerns about community members, especially seniors, having to drive 50 kilometres south to Russell on rural roads in the wintertime.

“All of the sudden they’re pulling the rug out from under us in Roblin, because it’s a good time. I think doing it during a pandemic, in the middle of harvest, is pretty dirty pool.”

An email from a Shared Health spokesperson stated that diagnostic services will be “temporarily consolidated at Russell Health Centre due to a number of staff vacancies throughout the area”.

The Shared Health spokesperson also said that recruitment to fill those positions is ongoing, with an effort to maintain as much service as possible in the meantime. ECG exams and phlebotomy (i.e. lab sample collection, including blood samples) will continue to occur in Roblin, with testing occurring off-site.