Ministry of Health visiting Sydenham Campus this summer

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Out-going SDH chair Jeff Wesley has been busy in the last few months vouching for Wallaceburg’s hospital.

Michelle-Ann Hylton, senior policy advisor for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, told Wesley in an e-mail that she is looking forward to continued progress on this file.

“The Ministry is keen on assessing the state of the facility and getting a better sense of the Alliance’s overall capital plans,” Hylton said. “As such, officials from the capital branch will visit the area over the course of the summer.”

Hylton added: “While this does not change the status of the hospital’s application, it will serve to provide the Ministry with a clear understanding of the overall capital plans put forward by the Alliance and a sense of the more immediate needs.”

Wesley said he is optimistic and satisfied with a presentation he conducted at the end of May in front of the Ministry of Health.

“The purpose of going down there is that our community has been dealing with the hospital issue for years and years and years and I think it’s important for the community to get some sort of certainty as to where the project is, so that they can have some comfort going forward and we don’t have this ongoing anxiety about what is around the next corner.”

Wesley is pushing for a provincial decision and Ministry of Health approval to fund the Imagine Project.

At its proposed completion, the Imagine Project would see a brand new hospital built in Wallaceburg and upgrades at both hospital sites in Chatham.

During his meeting in May, Wesley said the Ministry was very interested in the history and the background of Sydenham District Hospital.

The second thing Wesley discussed with them was about the hospital not being in the best of shape.

“That is a great concern of a lot for people and we are worried because there hasn’t been a lot of money put into maintenance and maintaining of the current hospital. We are concerned as a community that at some point somebody is going to walk in there, not from a health perspective but a safety, labour or environmental point of view, and say ‘hey, this building hasn’t been maintained or it’s not fit for people to be in here.’ Not fit for this type of service and they will close it down and we wont have had an answer for a new hospital in Wallaceburg.”

Wesley said he provided them with binder filled with letters of support.

“From the community, the local municipalities and Walpole Island First Nations. It also had the physical assessment report on Sydenham Hospital. It had the updated information from the Imagine Project, my presentation to the standing committee on finance and economic affairs. It had all of that just so they would get the full picture.”

Watch for more on this story.

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