The South Bruce Grey Health Centre says two community engagement sessions last week were the first step in a new community engagement process, and a survey for public feedback remains open.
The hospital organization, which runs sites in Durham, Chesley, Walkerton and Kincardine says a nursing staff shortage has prompted the overnight closures of emergency departments in Chesley and Durham. In June, the SBGHC also took Durham’s ten inpatient beds and moved half to Kincardine and half to Walkerton.
Hundreds of people attended the in-person meetings in Durham and Chesley August 26th and 27th.
The hospital group was looking to talk about how to move forward with the reductions in place, with CEO Nancy Shaw giving a presentation, then taking questions from the crowd, but those who attended were focused on questioning the service reductions and advocating for a return of services.
The SBGHC released a statement Wednesday, September. 4th, saying, “We are grateful to have had the opportunity to meet with over 350 community members to collect their feedback and input.”
They add, “In these sessions, we reiterated our commitment to keeping all four SBGHC sites open to deliver high-quality care to keep our communities healthy. That being said, we continue to face staffing shortages and want to hear from our community as we reassess and evaluate how we are using our limited resources to care for our communities.”
The SBGHC says it will be collecting additional community feedback through a survey they have online and throughout the area until September 10th.
.
Paper copies of the survey are available at the West Grey, Arran-Elderslie, Brockton and Huron-Kinloss municipal offices.
They are also accepting suggestions and questions via email at communications@sbghc.on.ca.
The SBGHC says, “We are committed to open dialogue and will continue to meet with our staff, physicians, partners and community over the coming weeks and months.”
Once the survey deadline passes, they say they will provide a report summarizing what they heard through the survey and engagement sessions, meetings and emails. They also say they plan to answer questions that have been raised during those sessions.
The survey can be accessed online until September 10th at the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2PLNTSG