Life lines: Woman works to restore hospital beds in North Shore community after they were 'temporarily' closed

This is the first story in CBC Sudbury's Lifelines series exploring access to health care in the communities of Lake Huron's North Shore.

Time and distance take their own toll, even on the healthy, when trying to access health care in remote and rural communities along the north shore of Lake Huron, say a group of women advocating for more services where they live.

Angie Gallup  talked about how she was on a rural highway last January when she got the call saying her father had died in the Blind River Hospital, alone. 

She said the family knew he was dying  but the one palliative bed in the Blind River Hospital was already filled, and there was no other in-patient facility close to home in Thessalon.

"He went back three generations here, he deserved to be able to die here and it wouldn't break the bank to make that happen," she said.

That's the kind of story another Thessalon woman is gathering about remote health and rural health care to be passed on to the grass roots group, the Ontario Health Coalition.

Mary Jane Thompson wants The North Shore Health Network to restore four in-patient beds to its Thessalon site.

They were closed in April, 2020 due to concerns about being able to conform to COVID-19 protocols.

Two of the spots were moved to the Blind River Hospital about a 45 minute drive away, which now has 18 beds. 

It was said to be a temporary decision at the time.

Tim Vine is the current CEO of the North Shore Health Network.

He wasn't involved in that decision, and says he's committed to reviewing it. However Vine maintains there is no money right now to restore hospital service to the Thessalon site.

"Our health human resources at this point are strained to the point where we can't even contemplate re-opening those beds," said Vine.

Thompson isn't letting go, saying she's not angry at Vine, but says those kinds of decisions are causing people to move away.

"They are not interested in improving this place because it's too small, it's too expensive, it's too behind the times," she said. "There's so many things against a small town, hospitals, schools and as a result, small town northern Ontario is dying. We're becoming ghost towns." 

Even her 76 year-old husband suggested they might have to move away soon, closer to the more expanded medical services offered in Sault Ste. Marie, 

That's a thought that brings tears, considering she's still living in the house she was born in and the chapel she attends is two doors down.

"I have a huge community of people that I'm very, very close to and I don't want to move," she said.

At the Thessalon site, Dr. Amy Vine, no relation to Tim Vine, said the emergency room has expanded to  use the whole space with the ability to hold people overnight if necessary, and feels she and the two nurses offer skilled care.

She said there just isn't the ability to offer full hospital services with what they have to work with.

Vine noted that recent additions of an ultrasound machine, extended X-ray hours and a geriatric program will prevent some patients from having to drive longer distances.

"Obviously resources are thin and it's not a big city, we don't have access to a surgeon in ten minutes and all those CT scanners and that, but we do the very best with what we have," she said.

Her biggest concern, she said, is keeping the emergency room staffed and open. Providing full hospital services would be a problem, given that they rely so heavily on temporary doctors filling in certain shifts.

Last summer, the ER in Thessalon closed four times during a hiatus of the temporary locum program which brings in visiting doctors to relieve staff, according to the health network's administration..

"It's scary to think what could happen if this place isn't open," she said. "Somebody has a bad allergic reaction, a heart attack or we quite frequently have large accidents on the highway, the outcomes will be poorer if people have to wait to get transferred 30-40 minutes to the nearest hospital for care versus us being right in the community."

The Thessalon site of the North Shore Health Network is the only source of primary health care in the town, although there is a family health team 20 kilometres away in Bruce Mines, where Dr. Amy Vine also practises.

Thessalon's Mayor Bill Rosenberg says he's confident in the way health care is provided in the community.

"The need for more doctors, nurses is a huge issue all over the province and is not going to be solved quickly enough for anyone's liking, especially in rural communities," he wrote in an email to CBC.