A group of people from Grey Bruce took a bus down to the Provincial Legislature in Toronto Wednesday to voice their opposition to service changes at the hospital in Durham.
The plan is to move the hospital’s ten inpatient beds to Walkerton and Kincardine in order to address an ongoing staffing shortage, keeping the hospital as a centre for urgent and emergent care from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
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The Save the Durham Hospital Group’s presence in the Ontario Legislature helped to prompt debate during question period.
NDP Opposition Leader Marit Stiles told the Speaker of the Assembly, “We’ve been raising this with the government for years now. The community has experienced rolling closures in Chesley, in Kincardine, in Walkerton and Durham hospitals.”
She went on to ask, “My question to the premier is, will the premier do what the minister will not and commit to meeting with the people of Grey County today?”
West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles has told Bayshore Broadcasting News he did receive a call from both Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones last week.
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health, Progressive Conservative MPP for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry Nolan Quinn responded to the question, as the premier was not in the legislature at the time, saying “I think it’s worth noting the hard work that the member from Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound (MPP Rick Byers) has been doing on this file, both meeting with his community and the Ministry of Health.”
Quinn added, “Speaker, the South Bruce Grey Health Centre is governed by a local board of directors to best serve their local community needs. When reviewing their community needs, they decided to refocus their resources at Durham hospital to primary care and urgent care. Speaker, this will result in expansion of care beds at Walkerton and Kincardine hospitals as Durham shifts to primary care and urgent care, speaker. With many patients in the Durham community without a family physician, this focus will be imperative. South Bruce Grey Health Centre changes will have no impact on the level of care while retaining the existing staff. These changes will ensure a stable and sustainable healthcare system that will better serve the local needs. The Ministy of Health, Ontario Health and South Bruce Grey Health Centre will continue to work together for longer-term solutions to healthcare in South Bruce Grey.”
The member for Nickel Belt, NDP MPP France Gelinas spoke next in the debate, saying,”The good people of Durham are here today. They are living the same nightmare that Minden lived last year. Will the premier ensure the good people of Durham that their hospital will stay open? ”
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health, Quinn responded, “Let’s be clear speaker, we blame the NDP propping up the liberals for over ten years as to why we’re in this situation. Speaker, our government inherited a healthcare system under severe pressure due to the actions of the previous liberal government. Under the leadership of Premier Ford our government has made record investments into the healthcare system. Since 2018 Speaker, we’ve increased the healthcare budget by over $18 billion. investing over$85 billion in the system this year alone. We will continue to ensure that we have the best publicly funded healthcare system all across Canada with our investments into our system.”
The Save the Durham Hospital Group says in a Facebook post, their committee presented petitions with over 3700 signatures, and that those petitions were supported and entered into the record by Don Valley East Liberal MPP Adil Shamji and Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gelinas, and also that they were acknowledged and signed by MPP Rick Byers.
They say community letters and impact statements were also delivered to Premier Doug Ford’s office.
Meanwhile, the Save the Durham Hospital group has created a website, in addition to their Facebook page.
They are organizing a march through Durham on Tuesday, May 21st which will be followed by a vigil outside the Durham hospital. That’s set to begin at 7:30 p.m. The march will start at the Durham Arena and continue down Bruce Street to the Durham Legion where people also plan to gather with signs, then down Chester Street to the hospital.
Listen to some of the debate by clicking on the audio bar below: