Below is a list of Dynacare locations that have recently closed in Winnipeg.
- Park Hill (3263 Portage Ave.)
- Westwood (3320 Portage Ave.)
- Old Tuxedo (262-2025 Corydon Ave.)
- Charleswood (3360 Roblin Blvd.)
- Tuxedo Medical (1425 Corydon Ave.)
- Stafford (100-305 Stafford St.)
- Pan Am (75 Poseidon Bay)
- Prairie Trail (100-1345 Taylor Ave.)
- Viva Care (1665 Kenaston Blvd.)
- Linden Ridge (123 Scurfield)
If you needed a variety of diagnostic medical tests, there was a good chance that one was within walking distance or bus distance near a grocery or pharmacy.
Dynacare became city-wide through a takeover of a competitor. However, it’s now closing multiple locations in favour of super locations.
Is this a good thing? According to the company it means that these locations will be new, have better staffing, services and parking. What they won’t be is close. If you live in St. James, there will no Dynacare locations from the St. James Bridge until you get to Unicity. Unicity will be home to a supercenter. Though this location will be on along a bus route, it’ll be a very long ride to get there and back if you are getting monthly blood tests.
The new 1-515 Sterling Lyon location in the Seasons of Tuxedo will not be easy at all for those who used to go to the Charleswood or Tuxedo locations. River Heights and Linden Woods also face much longer commutes. In fact all Southwest Winnipeg is in for a big surprise when going for bloodwork. If you don’t drive, it will be extremely tough.
While buses go to Seasons of Tuxedo, they don’t drop off right where the clinic is. The stop is the other side of the mall. While the 10 clinic rooms are handicapped accessible, transportation to the clinic door is not easy. it’s a long walk from the bus stop to the curb that greets you at the clinic doors. And if you were thinking of walking, there is no sidewalk on the north side of Sterling Lyon. I also wouldn’t ride a bike down Kenaston where cars race up the shoulder. There are no sidewalks on Kenaston as well.
The only way to really get to this clinic is by car. And the clinic will be sharing a parking lot with the new Frankie’s restaurant. No fault of Frankie’s but you have to assume that could be a lot of cars in and out of the lot. The F45 gym is also in there.
So… let’s break it down. A new 10 room clinic in Seasons of Tuxedo. Service area is pretty much all southwest Winnipeg. Bus stop is across the other side of the mall. No sidewalks on north side of Sterling Lyon where the clinic is. No sidewalks either side of all south Kenaston. Bikes? How could you could attempt it let alone lock up nearby? A shared parking lot with other busy tenants. A curb to greet you as hobble or wheel yourself up there.
Have I got this right? There are 25 smaller facilities being closed but like banks that shut down in neighbourhoods, it is hard to see this as forcing people to use cars to go longer distances while still throwing other obstacles in the way to the service.
I don’t even want to talk about getting in and out of there during Christmas. It’s a dog’s breakfast even early in the morning. And it will only get worse when more is built on the site.
This has been a guest editorial by John Dobbin.
To read more from John, visit his blog Observations, Reservations, Conversations
