Open Health Niverville opens expansion to the public

Open Health Niverville cut the red ribbon on its new 970 square-foot expansion inside the Niverville Heritage Centre compex on Tuesday.

Four new exam rooms were opened bringing the number of rooms to 15, including a minor procedures room where invasive procedures, such as sutures, mole removals, and skin biopsies, can be performed under local anesthetics.

“We’re really, really excited to see an expansion for our community,” said Deputy Mayor Nathan Dueck, who is also a director with Open Health Niverville and president of Niverville Health Care Services Inc. (NHCSI), a non-profit created by the Town of Niverville when it took ownership of then Open Health Clinic in 2020.

Dueck said the town will grow steadily from its current number of 7,500 residents to 12,000 people in the next decade and that the clinic needs to keep up. On average, the clinic’s 15 doctors see about 200 people a day, with requests for prescriptions that number increases to about 300.

It took a year and four months to complete the expansion at a cost of $256,554, which is more than its initial estimated price tag of $100,000 in 2024. The money came out of NHCSI as no grants or funding was received from outside sources. Any money made by the fee-for-service clinic will be reinvested back into the facility.

In 2024, the clinic had a profit of $10,000.

Town spokesperson Cyrus Reimer couldn’t say what the operating budget was for the medical centre as it is based on many things, including the number of doctors on staff which has fluctuated in recent years. Over the past six years, he said NHCSI has spent $370,000 on the clinic.

The clinic was established in 2015 by Drs. Mairi and Chris Burnett making the then two-room centre the only medical establishment in town, according to Mairi. After practicing medicine in the United Kingdom, Albania, Africa, and Manitoba, the British couple decided to move to Niverville from Boissevain in 2005 when Chris got a job in Winnipeg working for Manitoba Health. Mairi established a practice in Niverville and was eventually joined by her husband where they created the Open Health Clinic in what used to be hotel rooms at the Niverville Heritage Centre complex.

“You see my husband is a dreamer…so he could see the benefits of having everyone all together in one place, all the different health care providers…,” said Mairi, who has been a doctor since 1981, but recently retired.

In 2021, the couple received a medal of excellence by Doctors Manitoba for their work in bringing health care to rural Manitobans.

Six years ago, after Mairi was diagnosed with cancer, she and her husband approached the town to buy Open Health, which they did for a $1. Mairi called the growth of the clinic over the years “amazing.”

“It really is,” she said with a smile.

Sheyna Andries, director of health services, is responsible for attracting doctors and nurse practitioners to Open Health. She said the reason these medical practitioners are so attracted to working in the town is because the clinic excels at having a positive team atmosphere where doctors feel free to consult each other.

Burnett agreed with Andries and added that the ability to have many facets of health care, such as mental health care and dieticians and physiotherapy, under one roof allows physicians to consult each other and adds to the comradery.

Dueck was asked if Open Health will ever have a diagnostic lab, with x-ray machines and MRIs, and he said “we’re going to continue to work on it one day at a time.”

Burnett said she would like to see diagnostic equipment established on the premises in the future.

Interestingly enough, in 2017, a multi-partner agreement between the town and other stakeholders was announced for a fee-for-service diagnostic centre that would house a medical laboratory, ultrasound and x-ray machines, and an MRI.

The proposed 2,400 sq. ft. Heritage Life Diagnostic Centre was to perform between 2,500 to 3,000 MRIs annually, employing between seven and 12 people. It was slated to open in fall 2018 on the southwest corner of the Niverville Heritage campus.

Initially, costs were set at $1 million, but a year later that estimate grew to about $4 million. The project never got off the ground as the provincial and federal governments failed to provide funding.

Burnett added she would also like to see a full-time lab open in the future as the current lab is only open four days a week with limited hours and by appointment only.

Looking towards the future, the clinic has exhausted all the available space at the heritage centre, which according to Dueck means Open Health will eventually have to find alternatives as it expands.