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When the people of Glenboro decided they needed a new medical clinic, they took matters into their own hands.
Every cent for the $2 million facility, which is set to open in June, was donated, said Ron Jefferies, chair of the Spirit Sands Medical Clinic fundraising group.
“We raised the money [with] 100 per cent donations,” said Jefferies. “Not one penny of provincial or federal money. We also had some help from our local municipalities, but the majority came from the locals and local businesses.”
The new Spirit Sands Medical Clinic will replace the current one that is more than 70 years old. It’s in the basement of the Glenboro Health Centre which was built in the early 1950s.
It’s showing its age with small offices, cinder block walls and very few windows.
Right next to the health centre is a personal care home. And behind those facilities was an empty lot, about the size of half a city block. It’s now the site of the new clinic.
“Our health professionals are in high demand,” Jefferies said as he sat in the reception area.
“They have many choices where they can go. They spend a lot of time in their office in their practice. And if you can have a nice, cheery place that improves the atmosphere that they’re going to work in, that’s a positive step,” he said.
The front entrance of the Glenboro Health Centre, built in the 1950s. The current clinic is in the basement. (Michele McDougall/CBC)
There are two physicians and a nurse practitioner in Glenboro. Each will have their own office with extra exam rooms allowing them to move from patient to patient with ease.
It’s hoped the extra space will attract even more health professionals like a dietitian and physiotherapist, said Dale Fisher, a councillor with the Municipality of Glenboro-South Cypress.
“This is totally, totally remarkable,” Fisher said. “The sod turning was a full year ago, and here we sit, ready to move in, in the next couple of weeks.”
“Our hospital was closed two years ago. It was going to be a transition. The lab was already closed. So in the last 2½ years, with doctor recruitment and getting this to move forward, this is an unbelievable fairy tale that you would never think,” he said.
The $2 million needed to build the new Spirit Sands Medical Clinic was raised by people who live in and around Glenboro. (Michele McDougall/CBC)
Glenboro is where Sandy Armstrong and her husband chose to retire.
Their decision was based on what the community has, including a hospital, X-ray department, a lab for bloodwork and a clinic.
Armstrong said she was taken aback the first time she walked into the older clinic.
“It has definitely done its time,” Armstrong said. “I was almost ready to buy them a new stool for the one office the first time I [saw] it, but this new clinic is going to be just fantastic.”
Computer hardware has been installed in the main reception area, and a few desks have been set up.
Ron Jefferies, chair of the Spirit Sands Medical Clinic committee, is all smiles as he sits in the reception area of the new clinic, which he says will help recruit and retain more medical professionals to Glenboro. (Michele McDougall/CBC)
Still to come are the installation of the patient beds and hanging art. Local photographers were invited to bring the bare walls to life by submitting their favourite snapshots.
Impossible to miss at the front entrance is the donor board listing those who gave amounts from $1,000 to more than $100,000.
WATCH | Spirit Sands Medical Clinic opening soon:
Locals raise millions for new clinic in Glenboro
When repairs were no longer possible for Glenboro’s cramped, outdated medical clinic, a municipal councillor wanted more than a Band-Aid solution. So he helped organize a $2-million fundraising drive to build a new one.
Lorelie Mitchell has lived in Glenboro most of her life. She said she was the first one to donate.
“If you ever look at anything that’s happening in rural Manitoba, they’ve been closing things down all over the place, and we keep losing things,” Mitchell said.
“Our community decided that to keep our medical group here and keep the hospital and not lose it, to have the clinic would be important.”
Jefferies’ voice broke with emotion as he talked about how no one hesitated to contribute to the new clinic.
“You don’t know whether you’re doing right or wrong, but you know that if you do nothing, what the outcome will be. And so. So we’re trying,” he said.