A Wallaceburg councillor wants Chatham-Kent staff to investigate the economic impact to the community if the Wallaceburg ER were to close.
“At council we don’t have a financial attachment to the hospital, we have very little if any power to do anything about what is going on there… but I think through all that is going on with the possible closure of the Sydenham District Hospital emergency department, all the reports that are out there, and all the community meetings, what is being missed is what the actual effect of having that ‘H’ taken from our community is, and what that does to a community,” Coun. Carmen McGregor told the Sydenham Current.
McGregor entered the notice of motion at Monday’s (May 16) combined meeting at the Civic Centre in Chatham.
“That’s very big… there is more than just the loss of an emergency ward, there is a loss of future economic growth because people don’t move into a community without a hospital. Large factories with multiple employees don’t like to come to an area where they can’t have access to emergency services or a hospital close by.”
McGregor said while Wallaceburg has great housing prices, older or retiring couples are not going to want to move into the community if they are not close to a hospital.
“It has a much larger impact and it doesn’t impact just Wallaceburg it impacts all of Chatham-Kent,” she said.
“If they put more ambulances on the road or they do some of these other services that they are putting out there in some of these reports right now, that just gets shifted over to the local taxpayer to pay. That is not just Wallaceburg taxpayers, that is all of Chatham-Kent. Not only are you getting increased wait times in your emergency department, there is just such a large fallout by losing a hospital in a community. It can be very devastating for a community.”
McGregor said having every bit of information helps at this point.
“If we are looking at this closure, we have to go at it from all ways,” she said.
“We have to go at it via the province, we have to go at it via the strength of the community. It has to be more than just our community. We have to get away from that everything goes to Chatham mentality… and Chatham thinking ‘oh they just want to keep everything over there.’ You’ve got to move yourself totally away from that and understand that this affects everyone in Chatham-Kent, not just us.”
McGregor said everyone seems to be overlooking what the economic repercussions will be within Chatham-Kent if the Wallaceburg ER is closed.
“If we’re going to try and fight for different things and make different decisions, we need all of the information and that is part of it,” she said.
“I don’t think a lot of people out of the Wallaceburg area fully understand some of the repercussions or understand the situation that we have here right now.”
McGregor said she wouldn’t expect any hard facts from Chatham-Kent staff about the issue, but more of an “expression of possibilities and of cost.
“The economic development department, they have the ability to look at other communities and there are other smaller communities where rural hospital have closed. They can talk to people in other economic departments and ask ‘how has this impacted you.’ Through our EMS, they can tell us what it is going to be to put extra ambulances on the road. We know those costs,” McGregor said.
If the Wallaceburg ER closes, McGregor said it makes things “nice” for the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance as they would receive money to build an urgent care centre for Wallaceburg and then add to their emergency department in Chatham.
“What comes back to the taxpayers of Chatham-Kent is not being paid any attention to right now and I think people need to understand that,” she said.
Mcgregor’s notice of motion is set to be brought up at the next Chatham-Kent council meeting, being held on Monday, May 30 at the Civic Centre in downtown Chatham.
