West Grey declares state of emergency over hospital service cuts

WEST GREY – Mayor Kevin Eccles, in consultation with the West Grey emergency control group, has declared a state of emergency in the municipality effective May 28.

As stated in the announcement posted on the municipality’s website, the reason is the removal of the in-patient beds from the Durham hospital and concerns regarding public safety. The well-being of West Grey residents, both physical and mental, is a top priority.

“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,” said Eccles.

The announcement concluded by stating, “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.”

In a phone interview on May 30, while the mayor was on a bus headed to a mass rally in Toronto, Eccles explained the two reasons for the declaration of the emergency.

The first was extra help from the province. As was the case when the tornado hit the Durham area a number of years ago, and during COVID, the emergency declaration “opens up a lot of resources.”

It enables the municipality to bring in personnel and other assistance, he said, noting, “The province is mandated to help us to mitigate the emergency.”

The second reason is, in Eccles’ words, “to show how serious this is getting.” He said he doesn’t think the various agencies have realized the seriousness of the impact on the community.

“We’re not going to quit until the beds are returned and the hospital is returned to full operating status, as it was meant to be,” Eccles said.

In discussing the ripple effect of the service cuts – removal of all 10 in-patient beds and operating the emergency department days only, Eccles spoke of ambulance response times, and what it will mean to the community to have more ambulances out of the area transporting patients to hospitals where they can be admitted. Should other hospitals in South Bruce Grey Health Centre have a closure, this will get worse, he said.

There’s also an impact on other emergency services, including fire and police. Regarding the latter, Eccles noted there are three West Grey Police Service cruisers on at any given time. Should police be transporting to hospital a person having a mental health emergency, that requires two cruisers – one to transport and the other for backup if needed.

There were 121 such calls in 2022, and 146 in 2023, Eccles said. “Now we have a police issue,” he said.

He spoke of the “golden hour” during which a trauma patient should receive definitive care to stand the best chance of survival. The time is measured from the time the trauma or emergency occurs. It also includes the time it takes for help to arrive, the time to call an ambulance, the ambulance’s travel time to the emergency site, time for paramedics to work on the patient at the site, and time to transport them to hospital. A half-hour to get to a hospital that’s open is a lot of time when there’s only an hour.

The mayor commented that a ministry official had asked about the plan to mitigate these ripple effects. “I told him we were told there’d be discussion in June or July … there is no plan.”

There was also no consultation with the community prior to SBGHC’s decision. “It’s getting more and more frustrating,” Eccles said.

He went on to say that he believes the “desired outcome” is the closure of the Durham hospital. “For the past 20 years the health ministry has been saying there are too many hospitals in rural Ontario. … Now it’s staffing. The ministry has always wanted to close rural hospitals.”

Eccles said the push for regionalization would result in there being hospitals in Owen Sound, Hanover and Kincardine, plus clinics and private clinics. He speculated the new state-of-the-art facility in Markdale wouldn’t necessarily be safe; it would, in fact, make “quite a lure” if offered as a location for a private clinic.

“People should get health care with their OHIP card, not their credit card,” said Eccles.

He added that he plans to make sure the Ministry of Health “delivers on its mandate.”

He’s asking the community to continue with political action. “This is a political problem,” he said. That means pressuring political leaders including the local MPP – any MPP. “This is not what Ontario’s rural citizens signed up for,” said Eccles. “We need to tell them, you have a responsibility to deliver health care … you’re failing us.”

SBGHC comments on emergency declaration

Nancy Shaw, SBGHC’s CEO, issued the following statement when asked to comment on West Grey’s state of emergency:

“SBGHC is experiencing severe nursing shortages – specifically at our Durham hospital site - which are anticipated to worsen over the summer. We do not have enough nurses to keep both the inpatient beds and emergency services open at the Durham site. On April 24, we made the difficult but necessary decision to transition 10 inpatient beds currently at the Durham hospital site to two nearby sites operated by SBGHC where there are more nurses available to ensure safe and quality care for our patients.

“Relocating these beds allows us to keep emergency services in Durham open. We are committed to keeping the Durham site open and providing care at that site to the community. Patients in need of urgent medical attention can continue to access the Durham site daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., the same way as before. Patients in need of inpatient care will be transferred to a nearby hospital site.

“We will continue to work with both the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health to ensure all SBGHC sites continue to provide care to our communities.”

Shaw stressed that patients in Durham will be able to “access inpatient care at multiple nearby hospital sites.” Five of those sites are within a 30-minute drive:

• Hanover – 20 km

• Mount Forest – 26 km

• Markdale – 28 km

• Walkerton – 29 km

• Chesley – 37 km

• Owen Sound – 46 km

• Kincardine – 72 km

• Southampton – 78 km.

Shaw noted the current registered nurse vacancy rate at the Durham site is 48 per cent, up from 19 per cent last summer, during which time there were a “significant” number of short notice closures of the emergency department. “We are acting to avoid this, this summer.”

Pauline Kerr, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Walkerton Herald Times