Dr. Alan Rich, who served longer than any other doctor in Thompson, has passed away

Thompson’s best-loved doctor has passed away.

The legendary, and at times controversial, Dr. Alan Rich, who still holds the record as Thompson’s longest-serving physician, having practiced medicine here for more than 40 years, died earlier today.

Dr. Rich, who died in Swan River, was 73. There will be visitation at the Boardman/Northland Funeral Home at 28 Nelson Rd. here in Thompson, Manitoba next Sunday evening on Jan. 27 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The funeral service will follow next Monday morning at 10 a.m. on Jan. 28 at St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church at 114 Cree Rd. in Thompson. Internment will be at Thompson Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Dr. Rich’s memory to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Canada, a registered charity founded in 1983, which helps children with critical and life-threatening illnesses live out their biggest wishes. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Canada granted 615 wishes to Canadian children with life-threatening illnesses in 2017, spending an average of $13,268 per wish granted. Their charitable registration number is 89526 9173 RR0001 and their address is Make-A-Wish Foundation of Canada, 4211 Yonge St.,  Suite 520, Toronto, Ontario, M2P 2A9. Their website can be found at http://www.makeawish.ca

Sent packing from Thompson General Hospital into retirement in 2011 after a high-profile dispute with two other doctors on the old Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA) medical staff, just three years later he was presented with the Key to the City of Thompson on Oct. 6, 2014, the city’s highest and infrequently bestowed honour, by then Mayor Tim Johnston and then Coun. Stella Locker, a registered nurse, who was council’s longest-serving member at the time. Dr. Rich had moved to Swan River a number of years ago.

“Al, from me to you, I want to say thank you for your commitment, thank you for your dedication, and I am happy to say that no one has played more of an important role in the health care of Thompsonites, and Northerners, than Dr. Alan Rich. You are to be thanked for the commitment you made,” the mayor said at the awards ceremony at city hall in 2014.

Even after his departure from Thompson General Hospital, Dr. Rich continued to practice medicine for quite a while from both from his office in the Professional Building on Selkirk Avenue, where he had been a long-time tenant of J.B. Johnston Ventures Limited, Tim Johnston’s family property holding company, and in his new home in Swan River, where Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) granted him hospital privileges at Swan River Valley Hospital. Born and raised in Thompson, Tim Johnston, of course, is the son of Dr. Blain Johnston, a former city councillor who was the first regular, full-time doctor in Thompson.

Dr. Rich graduated from the University of Saskatchewan as a doctor of medicine on May 13, 1971. He started practicing medicine in Thompson the following year, after completing his residency internship at Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Montreal in June 1972. Over the course of his long medical career, Rich worked as a general practitioner, worked in CancerCare, was an anesthetist, oversaw dialysis, and worked as a medical examiner. Dr. Rich had originally arrived in Thompson from Saskatchewan as a summer student to work underground at Inco. He hoped to make enough money working in the mines during summers to put himself through medical school, which he did. In Saskatchewan, Dr. Rich as a young man, had worked on the Herriman family farm in Creelman, southeast of Regina. He returned to Thompson to open up his practice after graduating. Dr. Rich was also a high-calibre judo competitor, coaching and training judo practitioners, as well as serving as team physician for the Thompson Hawks, a senior amateur men’s hockey team. Their best season was in 1974-75 when they won the Edmonton Journal Trophy (Western Canada Intermediate Championship) but lost in the Hardy Cup Championship (Canadian Intermediate A Championship) that season to the Moncton Bears, the Eastern Canada champions.

On April 9, 2013, he was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, created to mark the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty’s accession to the throne, by Swan River Mayor Glen McKenzie.  “It was a surprise,” Twyla Machan, editor of the local Swan Valley Star & Times, quoted Rich as saying in receiving the award. “In Thompson, I was on the wrong side of political decisions, but I am a doctor with no limitations.” Discussing his move to Swan River where he set up a practice, Rich told the Star & Times he was enjoying it there. “It’s a lot of fun. This is a very good place. I retired here, and I will spend the rest of my days here I think.”

Dr. Rich always provoked strong feelings among Thompson residents, many of whom he delivered. He was legendary for making house calls or dropping by unannounced after an 18 or 20-hour day at the hospital and his office because he was concerned how a patient was doing and wanted to check in on them. He had a knack for identifying what was ailing someone when other doctors may not have been able to put their finger on the problem so quickly, as his many loyal patients attested to  over the years. He may have even saved the odd cherished pet along the way, but there is no official record of such.

While some found the bearded Dr. Rich, clad in his leather motorcycle jacket and jeans, which he was attired in when he picked up the Key to the City of Thompson in 2014, a tad brusque in his bedside manner, folks in this hardrock nickel mining town generally liked his no-BS plain-speaking ways.  Besides, his YellowPages ad did say he was “friendly, courteous and understanding.” If he had his eccentricities, don’t we all? Live and let live is a way of life in the North.

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Against the grain: PBS infomercials; flaking or public service?

My contrarian impulse is having a something of a knee-jerk reaction over a plate of pasta and my homemade spaghetti sauce after recently watching some of Dr. Mark Hyman, director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, and Dr. William Davis, a Milwaukee-based American cardiologist, sounding ominous warnings about sugar, including sugar-laded soft drinks, bread, breakfast cereals, pastries, pasta and other carbohydrates in separate alternate medicine infomercial-like fundraisers on Detroit Public TV, WTVS Channel 56, which my cable provider thoughtfully includes in its basic package up here in nearby Thompson, Manitoba. Sugar, of course, is de rigueur the bad boy of food staples these days, and is to the 2010s what eggs were to the 1980s (eggs, thankfully have been rehabilitated reputationally and are no longer a cholesterol cautionary tale for medical practitioners and nutritionists everywhere).

Whatever-happened to the good old days on American Public Television when a typical Saturday evening included what seemed like at least four-hour telethon pledge fundraisers, interspersed with occasional obscure Moody Blues concert footage featuring Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon for those of us in a certain age demographic? We got five years older, I suppose, is what happened and we spend more time before bedtime these Saturday nights thinking about being circa 60 then the Sixties. Public television programmers at PBS seem to be betting that we’re ready to hear less symphonic rock and a bit more about our glycemic index, belly fat, joint inflammation – inflammation seemingly everywhere actually – soaring blood sugars, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and our long-abused and vastly overworked pancreas and liver.

To his credit, Dr. Hyman now likes butter and eggs. He’s the author of Eat Fat and Get Thin, The Blood Sugar Solution and The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body’s Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast.

Dr. Davis is the author of Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health and Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox. In fairness to the good doctors, since I only watched about 45 minutes or so of both their shows (and Davis was actually on late-night mid-week, not on a Saturday night), so I didn’t hear their entire arguments. But I seemed to hear a lot more from both in terms of specifics about what was bad for you then what was good for you, which was deal with in generalities. I suppose it’s a bit hard to hawk you latest book if you give the good stuff all away on TV. Still, while I know Dr. Hyman has traded in his bagels for eggs, and gives a thumbs-up to fat (of some kinds, presumably found in specific foods beside eggs and butter, which he also likes) I’m at a loss to what Dr. Davis likes to eat, although if had tuned in longer, I might have found out.

I confess when I got to that area of the program, I was hearing the audio only as I was multi-tasking, putting away my freshly-laundered clothes in another room, listening to the TV in another, but I think I heard him talking about withdrawal symptoms coming off bread and pasta, produced by opioid peptides when some grains are digested, in the same language addictions experts talk about the relative merits of tapering versus cold turkey off narcotics like heroin. It didn’t really entice me much to give up Jeanette’s homemade Red River bread, fresh and warm out of the oven.

Now, CBC’s the fifth estate, just over a year ago, dug into Dr. Davis’ anti-wheat claims, and said some of them were hard to digest, as they were based on shaky science. A Feb. 27, 2015 online version of the investigation, “Wheat Belly arguments are based on shaky science, critics say: Scientists dispute claims in best-selling book, fifth estate finds” can be read here at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/wheat-belly-arguments-are-based-on-shaky-science-critics-say-1.2974214

Its’ fine journalism, as we’ve long come to expect from the fifth estate, with some good old debunking by Canadian scientists, including “Joe Schwarcz, a chemist at McGill University dedicated to demystifying science and debunking big claims” but it perhaps takes itself a bit too seriously.

Methinks this is rather the wrong approach: “The Battle of the Experts,” as it were.

Because to be clear, both Dr. Hyman and Dr. Davis, appear to be well qualified as medical practitioners with substantive knowledge in this area of ever-evolving medicine. They’re not quacks or scientific frauds. But they are charismatic and zealous marketers who are onto a good thing in terms of books sales, but I have no doubt they believe in what they are saying and that belief does have some foundation in promoting public health, not just sales of their books. Mind you, they believed the exact opposite in the 1980s and ate and promoted grain and carbohydrate-based diets. But, hey, didn’t we all think that was what was good for us back then? I still recall being a bit than less than overly excited about oat bran in everything, but whatever works, right?

Let’s face it; if you don’t think we have epidemic-like numbers in terms of caseloads of type 2 diabetes and obesity, just for starters, here in Northern Manitoba and across much of Canada and America, indeed whole swaths of the developed world (but not everywhere) you haven’t been paying attention to reality and the anecdotal evidence of your own eyes since at least the 1980s. While we can argue about the causes or triggers of these public health scourges, and just maybe grains and carbohydrates aren’t joint Public Food Enemy Number 1, but instead medicine’s flavour-of-the-month, you’d still have to have your head in the muskeg of the ever melting permafrost up here to say insulin resistance should be ignored and it’s OK to gratuitously continue to insult our pancreas and liver, without as much as second thought. I’d like to think there is something to be said for a very old cardinal virtue known as temperance and sometimes called moderation also. Not that I by any means practice what I preach in all areas of health or anything else when it comes to it. I’m not claiming personal perfection, simply my turn at the soapbox here.

As for PBS, I remain a big fan of public television, including Detroit PBS.

True, there was a time not so long ago, of course, when alternative medicine or medical views – anything pretty much that derivated from mainstream allopathic, often ultra-pharmacologically friendly medicine, were considered heretical views and had a very tough time getting airtime or ink if you were more homeopathic or naturopathic in what you were proposing. I am not naïve enough to think Big Pharma has packed their doctor’s bag and stopped making house calls. Of course they haven’t. But Detroit PBS, seemed by inference with Dr. Hyman and Dr. Davis, to be implying they were a free speech platform of last resort, providing a noble public service.

Sorry, public television broadcasting folks. This was closer along the continuum , at least in my view, to flaking for an infomercial.

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[BJ1]

 

Dr. Alan Rich, the city’s longest-serving physician, sent packing into retirement in 2011, presented with the Key to the City of Thompson

Dr. Alan Rich, left, receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal last year in Swan River. Photo courtesy of Twyla Machan, Swan Valley Star & Times; Right a YellowPages ad for Dr.Rich’s office in the Professional Building in Thompson.

Thompson’s legendary, and at times controversial, Dr. Alan Rich, the city’s longest-serving physician who was sent packing from Thompson General Hospital into retirement in 2011 after a high-profile dispute with two other doctors on the medical staff, was presented with the Key to the City of Thompson Oct. 6, the city’s highest and infrequently bestowed honour,  by Mayor Tim Johnston and Coun. Stella Locker, a registered nurse and council’s longest-serving member.

Rich has always provoked strong feelings among Thompson residents, many of whom he delivered. He was legendary for making house calls or dropping by unannounced after an 18 or 20-hour day at the hospital and his office because he was concerned how a patient was doing and wanted to check in on them. He had a knack for identifying what was ailing someone when other doctors may not have been able to put their finger on the problem so quickly, as his many loyal patients attested to  over the years. He may have even saved the odd cherished pet along the way, but there is no official record of such.

While some found the bearded Dr. Rich, clad in his leather motorcycle jacket and jeans, which he was attired in Monday night to pick up the Key to the City of Thompson, a tad brusque in his bedside manner, folks in this hardrock nickel mining town generally liked his no-BS plain-speaking ways.  Besides, his YellowPages ad did say he was “friendly, courteous and understanding.” If he had his eccentricities, don’t we all? Live and let live is a way of life in the North.

Rich, a graduate of McGill University faculty of medicine in Montreal, began practicing medicine in Thompson in September 1972.  Over the course of his long medical career, Rich has worked as a general practitioner, worked in CancerCare, was an anesthetist, oversaw dialysis, and worked as a medical examiner. On April 9, 2013, he was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal,  created to mark the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty’s accession to the throne, by Swan River Mayor Glen McKenzie.  “It was a surprise,” Twyla Machan, editor of the local Swan Valley Star & Times, quoted Rich as saying in receiving the award. “In Thompson, I was on the wrong side of political decisions, but I am a doctor with no limitations.” Discussing his move to Swan River where he set up a practice, Rich told the Star & Times he was enjoying it there. “It’s a lot of fun. This is a very good place. I retired here, and I will spend the rest of my days here I think.”

Rich’s 39-year career with the old Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA) ended badly after a high profile dispute with Dr. Hisham Tassi, an internist, and Dr. Hussam Azzam, vice-president of medical services.

Tassi and Azzam filed complaints against Rich in relation to his behavior and comments in earlier meetings with them, which they said had been inappropriate.  The complaint by Azzam stemmed from a Jan. 13, 2011 meeting between Azzam, acting in his capacity as the vice-president of medical services, regional chief of staff and chair of the BRHA medical advisory committee (MAC), and Rich during which, Azzam alleged, Rich shouted and pointed his finger at Azzam.

“I strongly feel that Dr. Rich’s behavior and comments were inappropriate, abusive, slanderous and defamatory,” Azzam wrote in a letter of complaint to BRHA chief executive officer Gloria King.
Tassi’s complaint concerned an Aug. 24, 2010 meeting between Tassi and Rich. During that meeting, Tassi alleged, Rich informed Tassi that he would be acting as a witness for a patient who had filed a complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM). The college does not provide information about complaints it receives unless disciplinary action is taken. It has never provided information suggesting Tassi has been subject to disciplinary action.

The BRHA medical advisory committee’s complaint resolution sub-committee – which at the time consisted of chair Dr. Christoffel Vermaak, Dr. Gabriel Anid, Dr. Eman Yousif, Dr. Ginette Poulin and Dr. Wali Kassem –  heard submissions and questioned witnesses on the matter and the full medical advisory committee (MAC) then considered the case on May 31, 2011 after earlier attempts at informal resolution failed. Rich had offered to apologize to Azzam but disagreed over what form the apology would take.

The BRHA’s position was that they did not initially request that Rich retire, but rather that his  retirement was discussed by counsel for the parties and an agreement was ultimately reached.

Rich continued to practice medicine from his office in the Professional Building on Selkirk Avenue, where he had been a long-time tenant of J.B. Johnston Ventures Limited, Mayor Johnston’s family property holding company, and in Swan River, where Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) granted him hospital privileges at Swan River Valley Hospital. Born and raised in Thompson, Tim Johnston is the son of Dr. Blain Johnston, a former city councillor who was the first regular, full-time doctor in Thompson.

A year after the Rich saga, the Thompson-based BRHA was merged by the province with the NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority (NRHA) in Flin Flon, with the single entity being re-named as the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) and has maintained a fairly low public profile and largely, especially in Thompson, stayed out of headline-making controversies.

The Northern Regional Health Authority covers about 61 per cent of Manitoba’s landmass and provide primary health care services for some 73,000 people – or about six per cent of the province’s population. Excluding hamlets, cottage settlements and Saskatchewan towns near the Manitoba border, the new NRHA provides health care services to 46 communities in an area bounded roughly by The Pas in the southwest to St. Theresa Point in the southeast and everything north to the Nunavut boundary at the 60th parallel – with the exception of Churchill, with the tiny Churchill Regional Health Authority merged two years ago with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, as the two bodies were already closely connected, the province said.

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