West Grey has filed an application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, asking for a judicial review of South Bruce Grey Health Centre’s decision to move the Durham hospital’s inpatient beds to other communities.
The municipality has also declared a state of emergency. Mayor Kevin Eccles says in an interview that the declaration brings, “A lot more focus to the situation that we’re in right at this point in time.”
He explains, “It will bring a lot more resources form the Province to identify how we resolve this issue,” adding, “The first thing that we’re looking for is staffing to keep the beds in place and after that, staffing to keep the emergency department open 24/7.”
The declaration of an emergency was accompanied by a statement from Eccles that says “While the decision to make this declaration was not made lightly, given the actions of South Bruce Grey Health Centre, it is vital that we take these drastic measures to safeguard the residents of West Grey and neighbouring communities,” adding, “These measures were implemented due to the response of our stakeholders concerns and the lack of action from the bodies responsible for the delivery of this essential human right.”
Eccles says as a result of the declaration, Emergency Management Ontario has reached out to the municipality.
As of March 10th, the Emergency department’s hours have been reduced from 24/7, to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
The South Bruce Grey Health Centre board of directors has said there is a severe nursing staff shortage that has led to the reduction in hours, and the decision to move Durham’s inpatient beds to the Walkerton and Kincardine sites.
The application for a judicial review is asking for a court order that quashes the decision to move the beds and an order to move them back to the Durham site.
Eccles isn’t expecting a quick resolution through the court, noting, “It will probably take months. It will be probably somewhere in October before the case will be heard.”
He hopes the issue is resolved before it even gets to court.
The application for judicial review makes a number of arguments. It claims there was no consultation ahead of the decision to reduce the emergency department’s hours and no consultation ahead of the decision to move the beds.
It claims poor management and recruitment led to the severe nursing staff shortage. It also alleges the board’s composition is too heavily weighted with members from Walkerton and Kincardine.
It also claims that nursing staff came up with a schedule to keep the beds in place, and that schedule was allegedly rejected by the board, according to West Grey’s legal application.
The application argues there will be a reduction in quality of care, and that threats to the ongoing viability of the hospital will be wide ranging, including the withdrawal of some locum doctors who do not want to work without inpatient beds. It also claims a reduction in hours could threaten existence of the ER because people may be rerouted to other sites with beds, it may affect paramedic availability and travel times after 5 p.m. and delays in care may lead to negative patient outcomes.
The application from West Grey says, “The decision to remove inpatient beds comes within the purview of public law and is judicially reviewable by the court. The decision was both procedurally unfair, and unreasonable.”
During a webinar May 14th, CEO Nancy Shaw said, “We have heard loud and clear that keeping emergency services open at the Durham site is a priority for our patients as this is primarily how you access healthcare, as many patients in Durham do not have access to a family doctor.” Shaw repeated what she has said before, that there are no plans to close the emergency department completely. She also stated the ‘H’ would remain on the Durham hospital.
NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW (1)