Maureen Solecki

Grey Bruce Health Services Speaks

Health & Fitness(continued)

Maureen Solecki, Interim President and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) talked at length with residents of Saugeen Shores after the LHIN meeting in Owen Sound on July 28, 2009.

While the LHIN staff was guarded and did not seem to want to comment on the ER services at the Southampton Hospital, Solecki was open, reasonable and informative talking to those gathered around her. 

The LHIN staff listened when asked about details, but clearly wanted to get back to their scripts.  The sessions were so short that nothing other than overview of LHIN was achieved as groups were shuffled on  bell ringing from one session to another.  The audience became more and more uneasy with the format and voiced it openly.

Solecki, however, confirmed what Mayor Mike Smith said at the Southampton Residents Association AGM on Saturday last.  That is, that the ER night shift is in grave danger of closing. 

The reason?  It appears not to be a money issue, but an issue of coverage. Even though the area is about to reach its targeted number of doctors, some of the doctors according to Solecki for personal and family reasons do not want to cover the shifts required.

Over the past few years night ER at Southampton has been possible due to the use of visiting doctors, but when the local count of doctors reaches quota, it is more and more difficult to justify bringing in outside doctors.

While Southampton handles a quoted 17,000 plus ER patients, the night shift does not involve  large numbers, but may have some of the most at risk patients.

Some doctors have been covering night ER for years, while others are not comfortable with ER service.  Some doctors came with an agreement that they  would not have to serve on night ER shifts.  This places an undo burden on those that will and this will force the closing, if some breakthrough is not achieved soon.

The most surprising part of the meeting concerned LHIN planning process.  The audience was given an overview that included such things as the wish for patient record care online to the concentration on diabetic and chronic care.

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01/08/2009 08:23 PM

However, when asked by one member of the audience if there were guidelines for ER service in the LHIN, the answer given by the facilitator was no.  She saw no need for guidelines because she said "each area is different".

The question was multi-part and concerned the following:

• Is there a geographic distribution that can insure that an ER patient can be seen within the 'golden' 20 minutes for cardiac and stroke patients? (as a goal)

• Is there a guideline for insuring that the first 'golden hour' of a trauma case is factored into ER placement and functionality? (as a goal)

• Is winter weather and travel distance a consideration for keeping open ER units such as Southampton open at night?

• Do the demographics (age) and population size of an area influence the priority of keeping an ER open at night?

The answer was that at present their planning did not include guidelines built around the above.

Those present at the meeting who also talked to Solecki agreed that she gave more useful information than the four sessions that comprised the LHIN presentation.

Many thought that a panel presentation would have been a better way to present the facts and listen to the concerns.

The LHIN staff is at present 27 with a 4.9 million dollar budget.