Hundreds of people attended two public meetings this week in Durham and Chesley to talk about hospital services amid a staffing shortage that has seen ER closures and service reductions.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre, which also runs the hospitals in Kincardine and Walkerton hosted the meetings with the intention of getting feedback on how to move forward amid reduced staffing, hours and beds.
But at Monday’s meeting in Durham, the crowd did not display an interest in talking about how to function without adequate staffing and without inpatient beds. They wanted the beds back and a staffing solution to be found.
Brenda Scott, Chair of the Chesley Hospital Community Action Committee says the community response was similar at the Chesley meeting Tuesday, demanding to have 24/7 emergency service restored.
West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles was at the Durham meeting and says, “They put the question out there and the question was, what does the community of Durham want? The community of Durham wants 24/7 and some beds in their hospital,” says Eccles. “That’s what the base level is. I think that’s what was heard.”
The SBGHC announced in April, that in June, it would take Durham’s ten inpatient hospital beds out and move five to Walkerton and five to Kincardine. The decision surprised local councils, the community and Grey County, which is building a redeveloped $90 million long-term care home in Durham as well as a new paramedic base. They all said they were not consulted about the decision beforehand.
This week’s meetings, set up by the hospital organization began with a presentation by SBGHC President and CEO Nancy Shaw, followed by about 45 minutes of questions from the community.
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Rick Byers also attended.
The SBGHC has been circulating a survey asking people what kinds of services they want in their hospitals. The survey set the discussion in the context of assuming a staff shortage will continue, saying “Recognizing we are not able to provide 24/7 emergency services at the Chesley and Durham sites due to limited staffing resources, what hours do you think are most important for access to care?”
Attendees in Durham and Chesley had several questions about staffing, and offered suggestions.
Jana White, Co-Chair of the Save the Durham Hospital Committee, a group of citizens who are advocating for a return of services says, “I think we have to be innovative about how we’re using our staff, how we’re recruiting our staff, retaining our staff, treating our staff and use that to solve the problem.”
White says, “We would like to see a working group that involves them, that involves physicians, nurses, community partners, community members and them to sit together and problem solve. We didn’t have that opportunity before this announcement was made. It was just handed down. So we’d like to see people come together to do that,” says White.
CEO Shaw made comments at the meeting indicating SBGHC would be receptive to that, and White says, “She did commit to following up with us after the survey results were collected. I hope that’s timely after the September 10th (survey) deadline, because we want, as soon as we can, to get back to business.”
One member of the audience in Durham asked how many nurses had been hired since April. Shaw said she didn’t have the exact number, but could find out and share that in a follow-up.
Brenda Scott, Chair of the Chesley Hospital Community Action Committee says Shaw didn’t have the answer when asked at the Chesley meeting the following evening either. “Certainly, if we’re looking at immediate solutions or solutions that could be carried out soon, that would be important information to have,” says Scott.
Another suggestion came from Deidter Stadnyk who asked if the SBGHC still wasn’t hiring nurses who were unvaccinated or weren’t up to date on Covid-19 vaccines.
Shaw replied the SBGHC is following best practices recommended by Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, which recommends they be vaccinated.
Stadnyk tells Bayshore Broadcasting News, “I see a glaring solution on the table and no one wants to acknowledge it,” adding, “I would rather have an unvaccinated healthcare worker, working on me than not getting the care at all and being told this hospital is closed.”
He adds, “What now is the bigger crisis? Is it having this vaccine or having care at all? Because we’re losing our hospital and people are going to die this winter because of it.”
Geography was a concern for a number of people who spoke at the Durham meeting and the ability to get to a hospital in winter.
Former paramedic Gary Cookman wants the Durham hospital, or at least the emergency department back to 24/7 operation, saying, “As a former paramedic I can say it takes about 30 minutes to get to Hanover from Durham and only about ten minutes from Walkerton to Hanover, so taking our nurses and putting them in Walkerton— they’re forcing us to close our emerg and we’ve got to drive 30 minutes to get there when the people of Walkerton only have about a 12 minute drive.”
He adds, “Try that on a stormy night or something if you’re going into respiratory or cardiac distress, that’s a long drive over there even to Markdale or to Walkerton.”
Shaw said Monday, residents have the ‘opportunity’ to access other hospitals in the broader area, listing Markdale as a possible option. She said, “Patients have the right to choose where they want to go to get care, and sometimes, that’s closest to you, so you do have the ability to choose where you would like to access care.”
An audience member called out,”In Durham,” in response.
In her presentation, Shaw highlighted statistics from 2022 that showed Chesley and Durham had some of the lowest numbers of emergency department visits in Grey Bruce. Shaw said in her presentation, the 2022 stats were used, “As this was the last year the Chesley site was opened 24/7.”
In actual fact, the Chesley hospital’s ER hasn’t been open regularly overnight since 2019.
On June 15th, 2022, SBGHC attempted to resume 24/7 ER service but there were still unplanned closures for about 3 months. Then the decision was made in October 2022 to fully close the ER to evaluate the level of service that could be safely provided. The ER reopened with reduced hours in December 2022.
Brenda Scott says Sharon Musehl, a Chesley Hospital Foundation member pointed this out at the Chesley meeting, saying stats from 2021/2022 do not provide an accurate depiction of what the Chesley site was capable of doing.
Shaw’s 2022 stats showed the Chesley site ranked lowest for the number of ER visits out of an incomplete list of hospitals in the region. Second last was Lion’s Head preceeded by Clinton (3rd last) and Durham (4th last). Hanover ranked highest for ER visits on the presented list, and the hospital in Owen Sound, the largest urban centre in the area, wasn’t ranked in that list.
**Following the publication of this story, in an email to Bayshore Broadcasting News, South Bruce Grey Health Centre says “The list of ED volumes only included the small hospital sites in the Southwest Region. There are many other hospitals in the southwest region with higher ED volumes, Owen Sound being one of them.”
Shaw said 7 a.m to 5 p.m. were the busiest times for SBGHC hospitals, and noted “High volumes of patients use all our sites for non-emergent reasons, and could be potentially be better served by urgent care or primary care which is their family physician.”
Shaw also said Monday, “South Bruce Grey Health Centre is committed to keeping all four sites open.”
Her presentation says between April 2023 and March 31, 2024 the Durham site experienced 61 unplanned short notice emergency department closures due to staffing shortages while the Chesley site experienced 45.
In her presentation, Shaw said relying on agency nurses is unsustainable.
West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles says,”How do you keep some hospitals open and this one (Durham), or Chesley, keeps continuously (closing)? The staffing shifts towards Walkerton and Kincardine in this case. How come it doesn’t shift the other way to keep these ones open?”