Heart patients in Morris now have better access to recovery support as the Pembina Valley Cardiac Rehabilitation program celebrates its five-year anniversary in Manitoba. The program provides essential care for those recovering from heart events or surgeries and is now accepting its 25th group of participants for a session beginning in June 2026.
Because the local Morris General Hospital is a 23-bed facility without a specialized cardiac intervention unit, patients in the area previously faced challenges finding local rehabilitation services. The expansion of the Pembina Valley Cardiac Rehabilitation program at the C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre in Winkler, located approximately 45 to 50 kilometres away, provides a more accessible option for residents.
The program is managed by kinesiologist and coordinator Nolan Turnbull as part of the regional health network Southern Health-Santé Sud. It offers a six-week course that includes supervised exercise, heart-healthy nutrition education, medication management, stress management, and lifestyle counseling. These services are delivered by an interdisciplinary team for a total cost of $50.
This initiative follows the successful pilot of the Portage Cardiac Rehabilitation program, which began in 2019. The expansion highlights a broader effort by Southern Health-Santé Sud to use community collaboration to provide specialized care closer to home for the more than 230,000 residents living across the region.
