One year after opening its doors in Winkler, the Winkler Medical Clinic says the community’s response has reinforced what first brought its physicians to the city: a clear need for access to primary care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The clinic marked its first anniversary with a ribbon-cutting celebration, reflecting on a year that has seen hundreds of patients walk through its doors and confirming the challenges many rural residents face in accessing regular healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Dr. Dorothy Ogunlana, the decision to expand beyond Winnipeg\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0part of a long-term business plan. Instead, it grew from conversations among\u00a0physicians\u00a0and a need highlighted much closer to home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We saw a publication in Doctors Manitoba… that there was a need in Winkler and the Winkler they were struggling to get doctors in,” she explained. “A group of us came together and said,\u00a0\u2018We can do this.\u2019”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The physicians also recognized that some of their Winkler\u00a0patients were already making the lengthy trip from the Pembina Valley for appointments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The distance is quite far,'” Ogunlana said. “So\u00a0with all that together, we decided… it was better we came to open a clinic here.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Discovering the extent of the need\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past year, one of the biggest surprises has been learning just how many\u00a0local residents\u00a0had gone without consistent access to a family doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When you ask, when was the last time you saw a doctor?\u00a0\u2018I’ve never seen one\u2019\u00a0or\u00a0\u2018it’s been the last five,\u00a0ten\u00a0years.\u2019”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said many patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure had been relying on walk-in visits rather than receiving ongoing follow-up care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While that presented challenges in the clinic’s early days, it also confirmed they had made the right decision to\u00a0establish\u00a0themselves in Winkler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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“It made us to know that, yes, there is a big need here and that we can fill in that gap,” she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The clinic continues to accept new patients and has seen strong demand throughout its first year of operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, five physicians rotate through the clinic, which includes five to six examination rooms. Ogunlana said the long-term plan is to eventually bring in\u00a0additional\u00a0doctors as the clinic becomes more established within the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We just want to stabilize initially so that and try and get to know the community more so that they can trust us,” she said. “This is what we’re here to do, and then we’ll get some other doctors in.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the clinic enters its second year in Winkler, Ogunlana said the message to residents\u00a0remains\u00a0simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are here,\u00a0and we are happy to see them,\u00a0and we are happy to welcome them,” she said. “If they have any concerns, any medical problems, they can come in as walk-ins. We do same day, we do books, we do telephone, anything.\u00a0We’re here.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year after opening its doors in Winkler, the Winkler Medical Clinic says the community’s response has reinforced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-740787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}