South West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) held a public meeting Tuesday, July 28th

Health & Fitness

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The South West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) held a public meeting Tuesday, July 28th at the Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound.

Approximately 150 people attended, including a large contingency from Southampton, hoping to hear some answers to their many questions. The forum was handled really quite cleverly by the LHIN(s). What began as a general meeting in a foyer type area subsequently broke into four different session rooms with a LHIN(s) facilitator in each. The audience split into four groups, each attending whichever session they wanted to begin with.

The facilitator of each session then addressed her group in LHIN (s) 101 basic, taking approximately 10 minutes allowing some five minutes for questions from the floor. At the sound of a hand bell, each group then got up and rotated to the next session to repeat the process all over again.

Confusing? Absolutely. Due to the time constraints, few questions were asked and fewer still were answered.

The contingent from Southampton were concerned primarily with the proposed rumoured closing of the local hospital's Emergency Room (ER). The ER, slated to be closed after September 1st during the night, is the second busiest ER in Grey Bruce Counties but, it all comes down to numbers.

Saugeen Shores is fortunate enough to be one of the few rural area communities that has a complete complement of doctors (15) due to the success of its Recruitment Committee. Unfortunately, success has resulted in a not so successful situation. Healthforce, a company that supplies locums (temporary fill-in physicians), does not provide those locums to hospitals in an area with a full complement of doctors.

Unfortunately, however, not all the doctors in the full complement will practice in an ER. For some, it is not in their 'contract' with the community, for others, they do not like to do ER shifts while others simply feel overworked. Therefore, despite a full complement of physicians, the ER is actually still short. It's a real 'catch 22' situation.

Therefore, the future for the Southampton Hospital, as for several others, does not look promising. According to one nurse, "This health system is about to implode unless something drastic is done quickly!"

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29/07/2009 12:07 AM

According to one source who works within the system, "If ERs, such as Southampton, close the way Seaforth did, it is because of the doctors. Some of them just don't want to take their turn in an ER, plain and simple."

Many kept asking the question, "... exactly what are the LHIN(s)?"

The LHIN(s) are 14 networks that were created by the Province three years ago to move the planning and funding of health care to the local level. The South West LHIN is the third largest and covers the largest area geographically, encompassing from Tobermory to Long Point and Goderich to London and everything in between. Governed by a nine-member Board of Directors, the South West LHIN oversees $1.9 Billion in spending to more than 150 health service providers. Among the providers funded under the LHIN(s) are hospitals, long-term care facilities, support agencies, mental health and addiction organizations and the aging-at-home strategy.

While the LHIN(s) appear to be forging ahead with goals and strategies, the Provincial Government announced today that it "... acknowledged they are concerned about major decisions being made by hospitals and LHIN(s) in their communities."

Ontario doctors today, in fact, called on the province to place a moratorium on major health care restructuring decisions until the recently appointed 'Rural and Northern Ontario Health Care Panel' could recommend steps whereby the government can improve access to health care in rural and northern Ontario. South West LHIN CEO, Michael Barrett said that he agreed with the new panel being tasked with rural and northern areas.

Local Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell has been appointed to the newly struck Panel.

At the end of the day, those who attended the LHIN(s) public meeting expressed frustration, anger and bitterness directed to a system that "... appears to be a bureaucratic, expensive nightmare" said one man.

"We did nothing but move from room to room like cattle every time the bell rang," said an elderly woman. "Who were they trying to kid? They told us nothing."