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Grey Bruce Health Coalition Talks Rural Health Care At Queen’s Park
Posted: May 20, 2025
(May 20, 2025) By: Nathan Shubert, Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre
The Grey Bruce Health Coalition brought its concerns about regional healthcare to the Ontario Legislature.
Co-Chair of the coalition Brenda Scott says a small group from the region joined the Ontario Health Coalition as a delegation to speak about the hospitals in Chesley and in Durham last week.
Both hospitals have faced service cuts in recent years due to a nursing staff shortage South Bruce Grey Health Centre is dealing with. Chesley’s emergency department hasn’t been 24/7 since 2019. And the Durham hospital’s inpatient unit closed last year, and its beds were moved to other sites.
Scott says while they were welcomed and asked several questions by the opposition, they only got vague responses from Minister of Health Sylvia Jones.
“During the question period, all of the opposition parties asked questions about rural healthcare in Ontario and they were very specific questions and there were questions about here in Grey Bruce. We were talking about the Chesley and Durham situation,” says Scott. “We didn’t get a lot of straight answers from the Minister of Health. We got the talking points and the usual comments, but they were able to bring attention to some issues.”
She says following the question period, the delegation took part in a press conference where Scott spoke more about the rural healthcare crisis, including the lack of public consultation by the South Bruce Grey Health Centre when it comes to health care decisions.
“It was a good day. It calls attention to the issues we are trying raise,” says Scott. “It was a day dedicated to the issues of rural health care and so every question from the opposition parties pertained to that issue. They were not entirely happy with the predictable answers that they got from the Minister of Health, that has been a pattern for quite a while.”
She adds they plan to continue press the minister until they get a response.
“Hope springs eternal, but my hope is limited with the current Minister of Health,” says Scott. “I don’t think the budget that we have just seen, it has a lot of merit in it, doesn’t really I think address the issue of rural health care very well.”
She says they have more days of action planned with another coming up in July in Huntsville and another in September.
