NL Health Services says efforts continue in the recruitment of physicians to the Family Care Team in Grand Falls-Windsor.

The town issued a release this week saying the facility is on “life support.” NLHS has not yet secured physicians to staff the facility, and to-date, just a few hundred of the approximately 4,000 area residents without a family doctor have been integrated into the new system.

That means many are still funneling through already busy ERs, while others are languishing, leaving some serious illnesses to go undiagnosed, in some cases until it’s too late.

Dr. Des Whalen, Senior Medical Director for Central with the NLHS, and an Emergency Room physician, acknowledges the concerns of the town and local residents.

“We see that every day,” says Whalen,” wait time are longer, and there’s more pressure on the emergency department. It’s really the only place in the system that’s kept that porch light on.” That’s why, says Whalen, it’s important to recognize that “what the town is saying is not all that different than the direction NLHS wants to go, because we want to combat that problem as well.”

Whalen was unable to provide any timelines as to when physicians will be in place at the Family Care Team.