MANITOULIN—Unless something unforeseen takes place, the Mindemoya Hospital Emergency department will be fully operational until later in January.
“We had a great meeting with the Manitoulin Central Family Health Team (MCFHT) and the Ministry of Health on Wednesday and knock on wood, we will not be looking at any (Mindemoya Hospital) emergency department closures until the third week of January,” Paula Fields, president and chief executive officer of the Manitoulin Health Centre (MHC) told members of the hospital board at a meeting last week.
“We seem to be safe in terms of the emergency department until the third week of January, as long as there is no physician sickness that arises,” Ms. Fields told The Expositor after the meeting.
Ms. Fields explained, “we had a meeting with the ministry and physicians and some locum doctors will be coming on board and our local physicians have graciously rescheduled their coverage to provide care in the emergency department. But this means a sacrifice in primary care because the doctors will not be able to cover off both.”
In her written report to the board Ms. Fields explained in part, “The MHC senior team worked tirelessly for the closure of the Mindemoya site (emergency department) at the beginning of October, with the closure being narrowly averted. This included frequent meetings with the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ontario Health, the creation of policies, procedures, internal/external communication, upstaffing the Little Current site and working with health system partners to redirect patient flow and mitigate risk. Closures continue to be a threat in the coming months. December shifts are currently covered, however in January and moving forward there will be shift vacancies. The physician recruiter, Health Force Ontario, MOH, MHC and the physician groups continue to recruit for the vacancies. Concerns regarding shift vacancies will escalate unless a sustainable solution is found to replace the Temporary Summer Locum Program that is coming to an end March 31, 2024, and local physician vacancies are filled.”
