Edmonton’s Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic staff looking to stay together after closure notice

Doctor Marni Wesner came to Edmonton and entered a sports medicine fellowship because of the city’s reputation for producing capable physicians.

She came to the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic (GSSMC) at the U of A in 1998, back when it was in the basement of the butterdome. Now its main home is the Kaye Edmonton Clinic, helping regular people with their physio and rehab.

“Every day, I see you, me, my neighbours, every day Edmontonians who are active and are injured or hurting and want to stay active and healthy,” said Dr. Wesner. “I like the people to work with because these are generally healthy people that want to get better. They want to do whatever they can to get better, and they want to excel. They want to keep getting themselves better.”

The GSSMC was once considered groundbreaking for having multiple services in one spot. There were 24-thousand patient visits in 2024.

But it’s soon coming to an end. Last week, the U of A announced it is closing the clinic in January cutting more than 20 jobs.

“We acknowledge the closure of the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic, a longtime staple at the University of Alberta and in Edmonton’s sports medicine environment, is a loss for the community. However, it is no longer financially viable or responsible to keep it open”, said the U of A in a statement to CityNews.

Wesner says she was invited Tuesday afternoon to a Thursday meeting at a time she was unable to attend due to seeing patients.

She instead got the news in a three-sentence email.

“[I was] shocked. Disappointed. Concerned about where we are going to be able to continue to provide care for our patients because we care deeply of our patients,” said Dr. Wesner. “We really had no say in it. There’s never been any discussion, never any collaboration with us… the professionals who are working in the clinic.”

In 2020, the clinic was moved to be a part of campus services. It’s the same department responsible for areas like parking and the bookstore, with an expectation to break even or make a profit.

The U of A says, “Despite efforts to adapt to this shifting environment, the financial position of the clinic has made it unsustainable, with net operating losses between $600,000 and $900,000 in each of the past three years. Closing the clinic is one of the difficult decisions the university is making to reduce expenditures.”

“I’m not sure there’s an expectation for profit because no medical clinic makes a profit,” said Dr. Wesner.

Work on informing patients is underway, with help being provided on referrals. But still, Wesner and her team are scrambling.

“This is not the end of the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic. The clinic is not the four walls that house it. The clinic is the people in it,” said Dr. Wesner.

Despite there being fewer than four months left until the clinic closes for good, Wesner and her colleagues are aiming to start their own private practice with the same services. But she admits it’s going to be tough to have minimal disruptions for patients, as the U of A is promising.