Sir: We are writing to express our opposition to the potential closing of the Sydenham Campus of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, in particular, losing access to our 24-hour emergency department and supporting services.
We believe the elimination of our local emergency department to be a grievous mistake that may cost the people we support, our employees and our community their health and well-being.
Throughout our history, Community Living Wallaceburg has relied upon the Sydenham hospital and its 24-hour emergency medical service in our mission to assist the people we support to participate proudly in an inclusive community.
Access to these local health care services has ensured that the people we support receive excellent care; preserving their health, well-being and quality of life.
Our Wallaceburg-based organization, through our caring employees, provides an extensive range of services around the clock to a medically vulnerable population. This population, along with the entire community of Wallaceburg, will suffer immediate and damaging impacts should we lose this essential service.
For our community, the proposal is the culmination of the systematic erosion of medical services in our area that we have endured for more than a decade. It is our position that the people we support, our valued employees, and the people of Wallaceburg, Dresden, Walpole Island First Nation and surrounding areas will be forced to travel additional distance to access emergency care should our ER be closed.
The plan to increase the distance to access emergency services, in an area already disadvantaged by health inequities, puts our community in jeopardy.
Without a plan that ensures that a fully functional 24-hour emergency department is available within Wallaceburg, lives will be at risk. The current proposal to remove these essential services from Wallaceburg presents an unacceptable reduction in necessary health services and places little value on our residents’ need for access to vital health care. The individuals that we support, our dedicated employees and our broader community deserve a fully functional, local, and independent 24-hour emergency department.
Derek McGiven
President, Board of Directors
Community Living Wallaceburg
