Rosthern ready to take on challenge of lost health-care facilities

On the weekend, news broke about the hospital and medical clinic in Rosthern closing down after one of the town’s doctors tested positive for COVID-19.

All the workers that he was in contact with have since had to go into a 14-day quarantine, leaving the town depleted of health-care workers.

“For some people it is daunting but we are a strong community and I remain confident that we’ll dig deep collectively. Will it have a lasting negative impact? No, I wouldn’t go there,” said the town’s mayor, Dennis Helmuth.

“It’s something that has happened and my perspective is to look forward and say, ‘OK, here we are. What can we do as a town to help our medical community and what can we do to do our part?”

Helmuth says while it’s obviously not ideal, there are procedures and protocols, like phone and video consultations, that are in place that can help residents get through situations like this until their hospitals are up and running again.

“Well, an extra doctor has offered his service to come and work with the existing medical situation for the next couple weeks,” said Helmuth.

“And presumably once self-isolation procedures have run their course we anticipate the hospital will be up to a fully functional service as it was prior to this incident.”

Helmuth believes that despite the daunting nature of the situation his community is ready to handle whatever gets thrown at it.

“This is a very daunting situation but ultimately we will be resourceful and I have a certain confidence that while we don’t know what it will look like when we get through it all we, in many ways, will be a stronger community,” he said.