REPEAT – Media Conference - Update: Fightback to Save Durham Hospital Ratcheting Up
23 Mayo 2024 - 7:00AM
It is a small community, but it has raised its voice for the whole
province to hear. Almost a thousand community members have taken to
the streets in rallies and vigils to save the hospital in the Town
of Durham, in Grey County after the amalgamated hospital
corporation announced the imminent closure of all their inpatient
beds. The South Grey Bruce Hospital corporation executives claim
that the hospital will remain open with an “emergency department”
and some diagnostics. However, their plan is to centralize all the
remaining inpatient beds to Walkerton and Kincardine, and they have
closed the emergency department every day from 5 p.m. until 7 a.m.
Echoing the strategy that was used in Minden to
close their hospital last June, the Durham community was given
almost no notice. The plan is to close all the inpatient beds by
June 3.
The municipality of West Grey has retained a law
firm to research their legal options. Now, the fightback is
ratcheting up. Community and union leaders will update the media
with their response to these plans in a press conference at the
Queen’s Park media studio.
When: |
Thursday, May 23 at 12 p.m. (noon) |
Where: |
Queen’s Park Media Studio, Main
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto |
Who: |
Mayor Kevin Eccles, West Grey
Executive Director Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition
President Erin Ariss, RN, Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA)
President JP Hornick, Ontario Public Service Employees Union
(OPSEU/SEFPO) |
|
|
Advocates have expressed frustration with the Ford
government’s laissez-faire attitude towards local public hospitals,
which have been built and supported by local communities for 100
years and are often cornerstone public services in communities
across Ontario. Unlike previous governments, the current provincial
government under the leadership of Doug Ford and Minister of Health
Sylvia Jones have told the media that they will not take
responsibility for local hospital closures and will not intervene
to stop them. Last June the Minden hospital, which had been in
existence since 1956, was closed as the government refused to
intervene. At the same time, the urgent care centres in Fort Erie
and Port Colborne were closed overnight permanently as the province
refused to act. In all of these communities, there was little
notice and no plan to mitigate the problems of no public
transportation (not even taxis at night), overwhelmed nearby
hospitals, new risks and costs to patients. In fact, the Ford
government has failed to intervene, even after an unprecedented
1,200 vital service closures in small, rural and local hospitals in
2023, including emergency departments, birthing units, outpatient
laboratories and an intensive care unit.
For more information: Natalie Mehra, executive
director, Ontario Health Coalition 416-230-6402 (cell); Mayor Kevin
Eccles (519) 374-3561; Ontario Nurses’ Association, media@ona.org;
Katie Arnup, OPSEU/SEFPO communications,
opseucommunications@opseu.org