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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