A Public Meeting Regarding The Reduced Hours At The Clinton Hospital Emergency Ward Attracted Close To 150 People Last Night
by Bob Montgomery
Doctor Maarten Bokhout and former MPP Carol Mitchell co-hosted the meeting on behalf of the concerned residents of Clinton.
The concern of those residents is that the hours at the Emergency Ward have been reduced for about four years now, and the three Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance hospitals in Seaforth, Stratford and St. Marys haven't had to deal with that continuous reduction. Doctor Bokhout says he was pleased to see so many people take an interest in the situation and that there were people representing the municipality, the HPHA Board and the HPHA Chief's of Staff at the meeting. He says he'd like to think progress is being made but at this point it's up to the Alliance.
Doctor Bokhout adds, one thing that's clear is that they're dealing with situations that didn't exist ten or twenty years ago. What a physician or a nurse wants to do has changed and that has to be recognized and somehow dealt with. Regarding the changes, Dr. Bokhout adds, “I don't think it's for the better. It's different, but I don't think it's an improvement.”
Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance CEO Andrew Williams was at the meeting and told the people in attendance they are actively recruiting, they're looking at options for changing hours, and they will do that as soon as their staffing allows a safe and sustainable change. He adds, they are trying to work towards a 24 hour a day model and until then they'll certainly adjust hours where they can, but they don't want to make changes that aren't sustainable and force them to go back to the current situation.
Andrews also agrees with Dr. Bokhout that healthcare is very different today. The work force is considerably different than it was twenty or thirty years ago, technology has certainly contributed to that change and there are several issues that are affecting decisions on staffing that they probably didn't face thirty years ago. When smaller services that don't have a lot of people lose one or two or three of those people that can affect service continuity.
Williams says they are dealing with a very different reality, and they're doing their best to react to that.
Last night's meeting was a community meeting convened by Doctor Maarten Bokhout and former MPP Carol Mitchell. The Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance will be holding one meeting at each of their hospitals in Clinton, Seaforth, Stratford and St. Marys in November, and those dates will be advertised shortly.
