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Published on June 18, 2024 • Last updated 33 minutes ago • 4 minute read
Chesley Hospital closed due to staffing shortages on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the day the Ontario Health Coalition heard concerns about health care from local residents in Chesley, Ont. (Scott Dunn/The Sun-Times/Postmedia Network)
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The Ontario Health Coalition was in Chesley on Tuesday to hear local people talk about the struggles and concerns they have about local health care.
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The coalition plans to release a report in early September that reflects what it heard in numerous public hearings across Ontario this summer and lays out some recommendations, said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the coalition.
The group is the same one that has taken part in protests against cuts to hospital services in Durham and Chesley, calling for a moratorium on hospital closures and an end to the privatisation of healthcare.
About 50 people gathered at the community center for Chesley's consultation, where nine speakers shared their experiences.
The Rev. Craig Bartlett, pastor at Allan Elderslie United Church, said it remains difficult to find doctors. Bartlett relies on Chesley's emergency department and two outpatient clinics at Owen Sound Hospital. Referrals to those clinics have taken anywhere from several months to nearly two and a half years.
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“I've been doing my best, but it's been hard to get the medical care I need,” he said.Because it was Tuesday, the emergency room in Chesley had been closed several times, with a sign on the door announcing the same.
Chesley's emergency department is only open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., but is subject to periodic closures due to staffing shortages.
Nearby Durham Hospital has the same opening hours, with its emergency department open seven days a week, but the hospital's CEO said inpatient beds had just been transferred to other facilities at South Bruce Grey Health Centre due to staffing and safety concerns.
Mr Bartlett estimated that more than 1,000 Arran-Elderslie residents lacked access to primary health care, with some he spoke to having waited six or seven years to find a doctor or nurse. A show of hands at the meeting revealed he was the only one without a family doctor, but others had to travel outside the area.
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Pastor Craig Bartlett of Allan Elderslie United Church told an Ontario Health Coalition panel that he is struggling to find a family doctor and is gathering examples and ideas for a report in September. The panel stops in Chesley, Ont., on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Scott Dunn/The Sun-Times/Postmedia Network)
Bernice Kozak said she lives a block and a half from Chesley Hospital, but when her partner had a heart attack, it took an hour to see a doctor — a “crisis” in Chesley, she said.
Kozak said her neighbor's partner, who has serious health issues, has left her husband to be with her son and move to a bigger city to be closer to his doctor, and is planning to sell the house and move out of Chelsea.
When Kozak retired to Chesley and left her family doctor, she asked the Chesley Medical Clinic to put her on their list to find a new doctor, and they laughed at her, she said, “Luckily, I found one in Kitchener.”
Among her points was that the merger of four hospitals – Chesley, Durham, Walkerton and Kincardine – hasn't worked out well for Chesley: “It leads to financial decisions in the name of efficiency. I've seen it pit communities against each other. Why does one community get this and we don't get that?”
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Hazel Pratt expressed concern that SBGHC's four hospitals are all under one board and CEO, “and I don't think it has benefited the patients in Chesley and the area in any way.”
“There is no equity in the services provided and I don't believe Kincardine Hospital benefits from the amalgamation, as the majority of trustees are members of the Kincardine Hospital Redevelopment Committee.”
Alan Elderslie Mayor Steve Hamel and the city's chief administrative officer Sylva Kirkwood said they had raised the issue of local health protections at council meetings and in individual meetings.
Mayor Hamel called concerns about the condition of Chesley Hospital “the biggest and most talked-about topic in my six years as Mayor.” Kirkwood pointed to a lack of transportation to alternative hospitals, especially for the large local Amish and Mennonite communities.
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The emergency department's irregular hours of operation since at least 2019 have been a strain on the community, she said, and the hospital's instability hurts opportunities for development and growth in Chesley, both said.
They have called on the state to establish a local mayors' forum encompassing communities within SBGHC's service area to “regularly communicate and share information about rural health care in our region and continue to put health care at the forefront of the state's mission.”
Such a forum would help provide information directly to the state, while also allowing city officials to keep residents updated on the current situation. Alan Elderslie also said Kirkwood would like to see SBGHC step up its communication with residents.
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Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, addresses a crowd of about 50 people at a community centre in Chesley, Ontario, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. To Mehra's left and right are Nora Beatty and Brenda Scott, co-chairs of the Grey Bruce Health Coalition, respectively. (Scott Dunn/The Sun-Times/Postmedia Network)
The health coalition panel included local health advocates Brenda Scott and Nora Beattie, co-chairs of the Grey Bruce Health Coalition, New Democrat health critic France Gelinas, Liberal health critic Dr. Adil Shamji, who joined via Zoom, and Graham Webb, lawyer and executive director of the Seniors Advocacy Centre.
Mehra, the coalition's executive director, also appeared on Tuesday's panel and said in an interview that the coalition's report will address how to stop communities from fighting “battles for the future of their hospitals every few years.”
She said she believes the committee, which must be unanimous in its recommendations, will consider recommending a set of services each hospital must provide, “so the decision on whether to close a hospital is not left to the discretion of an unelected local board.”
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Hospital governance is another theme addressed in the report, with some communities “deeply distrusting the board. The board is unelected and people don't feel the board has the community's best interests at heart.” Elected hospital boards are one idea to make boards “more responsive to community priorities and values,” she said.
“There's a very big difference between what's happened to the smallest of consolidated hospitals and independent hospitals,” she said. The committee wants to determine whether consolidation is working or “whether we should be trying something else in Ontario.”
Mehra invited people to submit their own suggestions by email at info@ontariohc.ca.
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