Residents in Leaf Rapids, Man., miss out on health care when they can't pay travel costs

Paying out-of-pocket for the cost of travelling to another community for medical appointments means some residents of Leaf Rapids, Man., miss appointments, or simply go without the health care they need.

Victoria Chaboyer wishes she was at work, taking care of young children at a daycare, but she's been off work since she injured her shoulder in an accident three years ago.

Chaboyer doesn't have the money to pay for transportation from Leaf Rapids, where she lives, to the hospital in Thompson, which is just over 150 km to the southeast, but the winding road covers 200 km. A round trip can cost upwards of $300, Chaboyer says.

"I would love to be working, I would love to be able to pay if I need a ride out, but physically I can't because I can't get the medical attention I need and I feel so, kind of lost," Chaboyer said. 

Chaboyer's injury happened in 2021 due to a slip and fall. After a visit to the clinic, and then a trip to Lynn Lake, her daughter gave her a ride to Winnipeg for a CT scan.

Following that, she now misses regular appointments in Thompson because she has no way of travelling there. 

Chaboyer says the pain in her shoulder and arm doesn't allow her to lift or pull with her arm. She doesn't know what's wrong with it, or how to fix it, without going to medical appointments in Thompson. 

"I have given up. I have really given up on my shoulder. I don't know to this day if I required surgery because I couldn't make it to get rides twice a week to Thompson," she says.

Leaf Rapids, a town of about 350 people located about 750 km north of Winnipeg, has a small clinic, usually with one nurse and no doctors, which leaves most patients requiring medical care to travel to Thompson or Lynn Lake.

Some people don't have the money to bear the up-front cost of travel, like Chaboyer, and others are helping out by offering free rides, bearing the cost of travel.  

"You have to pay out about $350 to get a ride. And if you don't have that money on you, you have to put your health care aside and just keep what you got to survive for food and water," Chaboyer said. 

A ride home

Mike Natewayes offers up help whenever he can. The 79-year-old picks people up from the hospital in Lynn Lake and drives them back home to Leaf Rapids about once a month, at his own expense. 

"People ask me and I just can't say no to them because people over there that were taken over by an ambulance, they're stuck over there," Natewayes said. 

The government doesn't reimburse the costs of returning back to the community after a trip in an ambulance. 

Some in Leaf Rapids, even without a vehicle, are helping out in other ways. After Rose Moose's son walked from Lynn Lake to Leaf Rapids — over 70 km — because he didn't have a ride, she started a fundraiser to help people travel. 

"I'm fundraising for us to try and get a medical vehicle for us to have money for when we go, to have money for food or $150 to get back," she said. 

Her grandson is one of the residents who constantly misses his appointments, but she hopes that will soon change if she can raise enough money. 

Without a mayor or town council in Leaf Rapids, Moose said she feels forgotten and that she has nobody to advocate for better medical services in the community. 

The town's council was dissolved in 2019, after resignations left it unable to meet quorum. In 2023, its administration fell to the provincially appointed Way to Go Consulting, after a contract with another firm that had been administering the town ended.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Northern Regional Health Authority said virtual and in-person visits are available in Lynn Lake, a model which "complies with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba's standard for virtual care, ensuring patients are seen by the same provider they consult virtually."

The statement also reads the policy they follow is "to subsidize expenses after the travel has taken place, and not before. In some circumstances a patient could seek other government subsidies."

They also state that the health authority is not responsible for providing transportation services.