(September 23 2023)<\/p>\n
By: Scott Miller, CTV News London<\/p>\n
Chesley, Ont.\u2019s emergency room was supposed to reopen on Monday following a three week closure \u2014 it has now been extended until Oct. 2. Walkerton\u2019s ER has been closed most of this weekend, while Durham\u2019s ER will be closed four of the next seven nights.<\/p>\n
Such is the state of emergency healthcare in midwestern Ontario.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a four hospital network and three of the four hospitals can no longer be said to have full-time ER services for their communities. So that\u2019s a 75 per cent, failure rate, I\u2019d call it,\u201d said Chesley resident and hospital crusader, Brenda Scott.<\/p>\n
The South Bruce Grey Health Centre, which operates hospitals in Chesley, Durham, Walkerton and Kincardine, said the increase in ER closures is a result of nursing shortages, compounded by short term leaves, vacations, and short notice sick calls.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all too much for local mayors, who are demanding immediate action from the province to fix their healthcare crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got the hospital ERs reopened, looks like based on agency nurses, so it was a mirage. It\u2019s clear now the money has run out to pay agency nurses to keep rural healthcare open,\u201d said Bruce County Warden Chris Peabody.<\/p>\n
Not unlike the Greenbelt controversy, health advocates said it will take public pressure to show the government that chronic ER closures are not something rural residents are willing to stand for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no other way to staff the hospitals without the recently retired staff coming back. So, the province has to do that. Nothing is happening. Absolutely nothing, as the situation worsens,\u201d explained Ontario Health Coalition Executive Director, Natalie Mehra.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Mehra hopes thousands of Ontarians join her at a rally at Queen\u2019s Park to bring to light that Ontario emergency rooms have been closed for over 13,000 hours this year \u2014 with no end in sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public has to pour on the pressure on our local MPPs to say this is not acceptable,\u201d said Mehra.<\/p>\n
\u201cA mere 14 months ago, after we fought so hard to get our ER open again, we now have to stand up again. The root of this problem is a lack of attention to rural healthcare,\u201d said Peabody.<\/p>\n