A community meeting is being hosted tonight by a group working to ensure the future of the Durham Hospital.
The group — known as Save the Durham Hospital — is welcoming people to a community information meeting at the Durham Community Centre hall at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
A lawn sign campaign is also being launched to rally supporters, and they’ll be given out at tonight’s meeting.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre recently announced it is planning to close the inpatient unit at the Durham Hospital and relocate its 10 beds to Kincardine and Walkerton. The Durham site would be reduced to an emergency care centre, operating from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
The changes are due to be implemented next month. The CEO of South Bruce Grey Health Centre Nancy Shaw has blamed a nursing staff shortage at the Durham Hospital for the decision.
- Durham Hospital Inpatient Beds Moving To Walkerton & Kincardine
- “No Plans To Close The Hospital,” South Bruce Grey Health CEO Assures After Durham Beds Announcement
The planned service cuts at the Durham Hospital have been met with pushback from West Grey council and the community.
West Grey council passed a motion last week to send a letter to South Bruce Grey Health Centre, urging it to not make the changes. The municipality also plans to pursue legal advice and all other actions to keep the Durham Hospital open.
Mayor Kevin Eccles blamed the provincial government while speaking on the Open Line on 560 CFOS recently, characterizing the Durham Hospital cuts as “a war on rural healthcare in Ontario.”
The MPP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Rick Byers — a Progressive Conservative — commented in the immediate aftermath of the closure announcement last month, saying it was due to operational issues and long-term staffing challenges for South Bruce Grey Health Centre.
He also noted other hospital corporations in the region — Brightshores Health System and the Hanover & District Hospital — haven’t had to close emergency rooms.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre responded to some of the community outrage with a public relations message sent out last Friday evening, reiterating the relocation of Durham’s 10 inpatient beds is due to a “critical shortage of staff.”
“We do not have enough staff to keep both inpatient care and emergency services open at the Durham site. Relocating these beds allows us to protect access to urgent and emergent services in Durham,” the statement from the hospital corporation explains. “We are committed to keeping the Durham site open and providing care at that site to the community.”
South Bruce Grey Health Centre also announced it will be hosting a “community webinar” on Tuesday, May 14, but didn’t say the time or how people will be able to access it.
