Rural Ontario residents offer solutions amid emergency room closures at local hospitals

Hospital administrators are meeting with residents living with cuts to service at several rural hospitals north of London this week learning how they feel health care could be best delivered.

Staffing challenges in recent years, including retaining registered nurses, have left hospitals in Chesley and Durham unable to operate 24/7. In March, both hospitals shortened their daily hours from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, with the Durham site open on weekends. 

Then in May, the South Bruce Grey Health Centre (SGBHC) moved 10 in-patient beds out of the Durham hospital to the hospitals in Walkerton and Kincardine, 30-minute and hour-long drives, respectively, from Durham. 

The reduction in ER hours drew the ire of residents, who fear they will lose complete access to emergency care in a large area that serves many farmers, seniors, Amish and Mennonite groups.

"We heard loud and clear 24/7 emergency is what people would like, but we know we can't provide that right now so we're looking at other services we can provide," said Nancy Shaw, the health centre's president and CEO at a public meeting in Chesley on Wednesday. 

"As an organization, we need to be able to fulfil our commitment to our patient population, so if there's any opportunity to bring that closer to home, that's what we'll continue to focus on."

This week, the health centre's administrators hosted public meetings in Durham, Chesley, Kincardine and Walkerton. They presented survey results gathered from the community that saw more than 800 respondents.

Some 36 per cent of people said they'd prefer the ER to be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., instead of closing at 5 p.m.

"Later in the evening would be better because a lot of people in town work at the Bruce [power plant] so by the time they get off shift, north of Kincardine and get back here, it's 6:30 or 7 p.m.," said Chesley resident Jeff Gibb, who lives a block away from the hospital.

However, Gibb believes a better time frame for the ER would be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., because he said, people now have to drive upward of 30 minutes for care.

Other suggestions from the survey included alternating hours between the Chesley and Durham sites to offer service for a longer period, keeping Chesley open on weekends, and aligning diagnostic imaging hours with emergency service hours. 

'Baby steps in the right direction'

SGBHC said it sees potential opportunities to bring certain enhanced services into the community to support residents who reported they are travelling outside for care. They would include: 

• Echocardiograms
• Mental Health Services
• Outpatient Lab Services
• Urgent Care
• Visiting Specialists
• Hospice Care 

For Brenda Scott, co-founder of the Grey Bruce Health Coalition, these options are "baby steps in the right direction" but the best outcome would be the return of a 24/7 ER, she said. 

"I can see that 10 to 8 might be easier for some people, so I suppose until we get to 24/7 I can see a rationale for this, plus the staggering hours between here and Durham, which is also 25 minutes away, so that is a good idea" she said.

"The problem is that if you have an accident, you have no idea when it's going to happen, particularly in an area with farming activity."

Shaw said between January and October of this year, SBGHC has hired 12 full-time and part-time registered nurses, calling it a "notable increase" over the past two years. 

The health centre's last meeting will be at Walkerton Community Centre on Wednesday evening, after which it will start reviewing the feedback to see which options can be implemented, she added.