Faces of the Fight from Drs. McGonigle: Vaccination offers a way to gather again

By Drs. Darcie and Reid McGonigle

Drs. Darcie and Reid McGonigle are family physicians living and working in Île-à-la-Crosse, a community in Northwest Saskatchewan that is situated on Treaty 10 territory and the traditional homeland of the Métis. They are part of a team that provides primary care, emergency room coverage, acute care, and long-term care to Île-à-la-Crosse and surrounding communities.

We always knew that we lived in a community of great strength and resilience; there is a powerful presence of Métis and First Nations heritage here that is rooted in tradition and family connectedness.

This strength and resilience has never been more apparent than during the pandemic. We have seen courageous leadership from so many individuals and groups: the mayor and council, the Friendship Centre, the school administration and teaching staff, the Elders Group, the local Métis Nation of Saskatchewan representatives, the RCMP, Sakitawak Development Corporation, the local radio station, and numerous local businesses. 

Everybody has come together to contribute to the pandemic response in every way possible from spearheading food security initiatives to implementing and supporting the safest back to school plan in the province. Local leaders have listened to and championed the health-care team’s messaging from day one. We are grateful for the strengthened bonds that have developed between all of these organizations for the common goal of surviving and recovering from this pandemic.

It has made such a difference here to have so many of these leaders and community members promote COVID-19 vaccination to their friends and family. All along, vaccination has been seen as a key way to protect our Elders and medically vulnerable community members, preserve our health care system, and get our children safely back to school and activities.

Vaccination has been seen as a way to gather again: both in times of joy with weddings and sorrow with funerals. That family connectedness and strong sense of community has powered our vaccination drive.

And yet, we still struggle with low vaccine uptake in some pockets of our population in northwest Saskatchewan.

Vaccine hesitancy is a complex issue; there is no uniform approach to a patient or community member that we encounter who has not yet been vaccinated.

We still have a lot of work to do in this area and we will continue to partner with our community leaders and health-care colleagues in surrounding communities in order to improve our vaccination rates across the northwest.

It is frustrating to know that each person that is not vaccinated could be the next patient that we have to send out to a tertiary care centre for lifesaving measures. We are especially fearful now, when we are on the cusp of not being able to provide those lifesaving measures in a health-care system that is strained at maximum capacity due to COVID-19.

Before the pandemic, if somebody stopped us in the grocery store to ask a medical question, we would apprehensively say, “sure…” and hope the subject matter wasn’t overly personal or graphic! Any physician who has worked in a small community knows this experience.

Over the past year and a half, the question topics have narrowed…COVID-19 now dominates these grocery store/gas station/post office conversations. Where we would once listen to the question and kindly ask the person to book into the clinic, we now jump right in and use the opportunity to educate, myth-bust, and encourage vaccination.

Our health-care team has stepped up in unimaginable ways for the past 20 months. Our acute care, public health and outpost nurses have amazed us with their ability to adapt and dedication to providing excellent care. We appreciate these team members so much and we will continue to work along side them in the coming weeks and months to provide the best care we can under increasingly difficult circumstances.

We are all going to continue to have those tough conversations with our patients, friends, neighbours, and family members about the importance of vaccines. These can be draining encounters, but the people of the northwest deserve our time and patience and expertise.

We have lived in Île-à-la-Crosse now for 11 years. This is not just where we work; this place is where we have raised our kids, coached sports, and where Reid has awkwardly jigged at community events.

We have felt embraced by this community and all of the surrounding communities that we have had the privilege to spend time in. The people of the northwest are not just our patients, but have also become our friends and family.

To the people here we say: You trusted us to take care of your grandmother when she was dying of cancer in the hospital; you trusted us to take care of your child when he had a severe asthma attack; please trust us when we encourage you to get the COVID-19 vaccine.