Dear Minister Hoskins,
We are writing to request your attention to the significant cuts that are proposed for our local hospital.
Funding remains inadequate, and the evidence, from hundreds of patients in Chatham-Kent, is that the bed and nursing cuts that are proposed will lengthen already extreme waits for access to needed care.
But first, we would like to thank you for your intervention and your ongoing commitment to our communities’ hospitals. The steps that you have taken have improved the situation and we appreciate that you have listened to our concerns and those of our communities.
Under the guidance of Rob Devitt, the Supervisor you appointed last year, and the new administrative leadership that has been created, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is doing much better: administrative staff has been trimmed, patient centred priorities have been set, health services are starting to be restored at the Sydenham campus, and the public seems relieved that the hospital is on track to recovery.
However, CKHA’s budget deficit remains a difficult problem. Recently it has been decided that 12 full-time RN positions (amounting to more than 22,000 hours of patient care per year) some part time RN positions, and numerous RPN positions and in-patient beds will be cut. This will enable CKHA to submit a balanced budget to the LHIN as required.
Today, we are writing to ask you to fund our hospital to stop the newest round of cuts.
We are concerned because current needs are not being met and the cuts will compromise patients’ health and safety.
Although we acknowledge that difficult decisions must be made, and also that not all problems are solved by “throwing money” at them, we do not believe that further bed cuts and staff downsizing serve the public interest.
In fact, in our survey of nearly 400 patients that was conducted in December 2016, we found that peoples’ top complaints were wait times to be seen in emergency department in Chatham; along with the waits for diagnostics, consults and hospital admissions.
This is consistent with reports from staff and the media.
As such, it is incongruous that the hospital is claiming that they have statistical data showing that certain program’s beds are not used to full capacity and that that they are not as “efficient” as others.
In our view, this is a race to the bottom and it is not supported by the evidence on hospital safety and patient flow.
Just because the other comparator hospitals may have fewer beds does not mean that reducing bed numbers to match them makes for a sound target.
Many, or even most, other hospitals have severe overcapacity and overcrowding problems, as you know. Please note that in 2013, the Chatham hospital announced it was cutting 22 — equivalent to 7% or 1 in every 14 — of its remaining hospital beds.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance also cut all the remaining complex continuing care beds, endoscopies, and the labs in Wallaceburg’s hospital in that same year.
The evidence, from the patients and staff, is that Chatham-Kent’s last round of bed and staff cuts in 2013 has not resulted in more “efficiencies” but rather forced patients to wait longer and travel further for needed care.
In fact, in our recent study, patients reported that they had to drive to emergency departments in Windsor, Newbury, Sarnia and London because of long waits in Chatham. People were very concerned about the requirement to travel so far for care and many described it as a major hardship.
We are concerned, too, that the numbers the hospital is using may mask the problem.
The hospital has created a new “rapid assessment zone” to hold patients of CTAS levels 3-5.
This may have enabled the hospital to report lower emergency department wait times. But patients are still waiting in the re-named area.
Indeed, we are hearing from staff and patients that wait times remain very long.
We deeply appreciate that you heard our concerns and those of our community the last time we raised them, when Wallaceburg’s hospital was set to close.
We are pleased that you sent in a Supervisor, insisted that Wallaceburg’s emergency department (and therefore the hospital) be preserved, and we support many of the other changes that have been made under the new leadership.
We hope that you will again hear our concerns and intervene to protect the services that our communities rely upon.
We are writing to ask you to fund our hospital to stop the newest round of cuts.
We are concerned because current needs are not being met and we fear that the cuts will compromise patients’ health and safety.
Shirley Roebuck,
Chair, Wallaceburg-Walpole Island First Nation Health Coalition
Natalie Mehra,
Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition
– Editor’s note: This letter was written by Shirley Roebuck, chair, Wallaceburg-Walpole Island First Nation Health Coalition, and Natalie Mehra, executive director, Ontario Health Coalition, and was sent to Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long Term Care in Ontario, along with being copied to the media.
