West Grey council is accepting as information a correspondence that expresses concern over the deterioration of services at local hospitals.
Council reviewed a letter at its meeting Tuesday from “The Friends of the Walkerton and Chesley Hospitals.” The correspondence was also sent to the municipalities of Arran-Elderslie, Brockton, Huron-Kinloss, Kincardine, and South Bruce.
The letter says the group has grave concerns over the ongoing operations of the local hospital corporation — South Bruce Grey Health Centre. It operates hospitals in Chesley, Walkerton, Durham and Kincardine.
“It is well known that a nursing shortage exists province-wide but at the same time draw to your attention that neither Hanover Hospital nor the seven hospital Grey Bruce Health Services system are experiencing the reduction of services we see at South Bruce Grey. We believe there must be unique challenges within our local hospital corporation that the other local corporations have avoided or are not encountering,” says the letter.
In a recent edition of the Open Line on 560 CFOS, South Bruce Grey Health Centre president and CEO Michael Barrett says there are many hospitals across Ontario that have been struggling with human resources challenges, not just South Bruce Grey Health Centre.
He mentions some nearby hospitals in Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance — Listowel-Wingham, Clinton and Seaforth — that have also been forced to close emergency departments due to nursing staff shortages.
“The cause of these closures … it’s not a money issue. It’s an issue of not having enough health human resources, particularly nurses, to be able to fill the shifts that we need to fill to keep the services operational,” Barrett says.
Barrett goes on to outline some of the data about nursing staff vacancies at South Bruce Grey Health Centre in the Oct. 13 edition of the Open Line. He says about 27 per cent of the organization’s 113 registered nurse positions are unfilled, and around 35 per cent of the 54 registered practical nurse positions in the hospital organization are vacant.
“This is considerably higher than it has ever been at South Bruce Grey,” Barrett says. “And this is a trend that has been seen across the province.”
South Bruce Grey Health Centre has closed the emergency department at the Chesley Hospital until Dec. 2 as it assesses “the level of service that can be safely provided at the organization’s four hospital sites in the longer term with the staffing resources available, recognizing that the provincial health human resource shortage will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future.”
Another South Bruce Grey Health Centre site, the Durham Hospital, has also had a couple of temporary overnight closures of its emergency room in recent weeks.
The “Friends of the Walkerton and Chesley Hospitals” say in their letter to West Grey council they’ve met with the local hospital organization’s chair and board representatives, the CEO and local MPPs. They say they’ve been ensured efforts are being made to fix the issues, including a detailed recruitment and retention plan set at the beginning of the year.
But the grassroots community group says in the letter “although it is assumed that the current board is diligently attempting to address our situation to the best of their abilities, given our current status, their work has not resulted in positive outcomes and the situation is getting worse.”
They go on to say “we believe a change is immediately necessary.”
West Grey Coun. Stephen Townsend, who previously served on the South Bruce Grey Health Centre board, says the composition of the board does not fall within the jurisdiction of the municipality.
“The reason that you see the spread that you do, is based on who puts their hand up who applies to be a board member,” says Townsend. “I know when I applied in 2014, there were no representatives from West Grey, because no one applied. Distribution also can’t be mandated and it is based on who will put their hands up to be on the board. It is also based on skill sets, if someone comes on and doesn’t have the skill sets of what they are trying to look at for that particular term, then they won’t be selected either, but the idea is to try to spread it as much as you can and get that representation.”
Townsend proposed receiving the correspondence for information.
He adds there is a role for the municipality to take in physician recruitment and retention.
“That is to sell, if you will, market, and understand there are other reasons for coming here other than just the fact that you will be a doctor or nurse,” says Townsend.