In a meeting that was loud, passionate, boisterous and optimistic, the Sydenham District Hospital Corporation board of directors received membership approval for what they believe will be a model for the next generation of small rural hospitals in Ontario.
A crowd estimated at more than 450 attended a meeting of the hospital board to hear plans for the future of health care in the community.
What they heard was a total denouncement of plans by the Chatham Kent Kealth Alliance to close the SDH Emergency Department and replace it with a 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. walk-in clinic with no physician on-site.
Walpole Island Council as well as the SDH board rejected that plan. It remains “classified” although much of its contents were revealed at the meeting.
SDH board member George Lung outlined a plan for what he called “the beginning of a new era of hospital care in this area.”
The plan includes:
- An integrated healthcare delivery system;
- Co-location with healthcare service providers;
- 24/7 Emergency Department;
- Professional staffing, including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners;
- All necessary ancillary services for the ED (e.g. diagnostic and laboratory);
- Helipad;
- Combination of medicine and observation beds;
- Maintain the ability to accommodate Sarnia/Chatham overflow;
- Governance under the SDH board (continued corporate membership); and
- A facility that will allow for future expansion in a site to be determined.
In addition to the reclassification, the board will seek Wallaceburg, Walpole Island and St. Clair Township be formed into a new district of the Erie-St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), which will work jointly with other healthcare organizations.
Lung said the SDH proposal is based on a model approved by the Ontario Hospital Board and endorsed by the Ministry of Health.
The day before the meeting, officials from the local chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition met in Queen’s Park.
As a result of that meeting provincial Health Minister Eric Hoskins issued a statement noting in part, “I want to assure the community that there are no plans whatsoever to close the hospital’s Emergency Department.”
“In addition, any proposals to alter the service level of the hospital would need to be approved by all members of the Alliance and the Erie St. Clair LHIN, and would require extensive community consultation and discussions with my ministry. Neither the LHIN nor my ministry have received any such requests,” Hoskins added.
SDH board chairman Sheldon Parsons said his board would proceed with plans to secure approval and funding for the project with or without CKHA’s blessing.
“As of right now, there is no CKHA since the other two boards (Public General and St. Joseph’s) have said they are suspending governance,” he said.
“We have consistently said we will work with anyone who wants to partner with us but we will take our plans directly to the LHIN (Erie St. Clair Local Health Integrated Network) and the minister if necessary.”
Lung said the SDH board is fully supportive of a “one stop shop” for health care with other community partners but believes local residents deserve more than what’s in the CKHA proposal.
“We have approximately 25,000 people from North Kent, South Lambton, St. Clair Township, Walpole Island, Dresden and Wallaceburg,” he said. “A part-time clinic without a doctor on site isn’t adequate.”
Lung said board members couldn’t approve any plan that would drastically decrease the level of health care for the area and doesn’t believe such reductions are necessary.
“We wonder why other hospitals within the southwest region and within our LHIN have not experienced these same reductions. Petrolia, Leamington, Newbury and Strathroy seem to have weathered these crises much better,” he said. “Either their administrations have managed differently to maintain these services or CKHA has voluntarily done more than we needed to do.”
He said the board is open to greater partnerships with Bluewater Health that operates hospitals in Sarnia and Petrolia.
“For the past 17 plus years, the Hospital Boards in Chatham were treating Sydenham like a corporate piggy bank,” he said. “Every time they ran into trouble, they withdrew our cash, our services, our equipment, even, as some suggested, our supplies.”
Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Monte McNaughton said he saw a “huge outcry” from the community.
“There’s been a line drawn in the sand that the community demands 24/7 emergency health care. I’ll be taking that message to the minister.”
CKHA CEO Colin Patey told the crowd the real issue is that “hospital funding is clearly not enough. If you want to challenge the government, please do, it makes my life a lot easier. I take no pride in eliminating any service from anyone.”
He said the province is forcing changes in delivery of health care by sending money in particular directions, saying community providers have been squeezing money out of existing organizations.
