Given the number of emergency department closures across the area, the Ontario Health Coalition is calling on the Ford government to take action.
This year alone has seen 1199 closures of vital hospital services, 868 of them being emergency department closures up to November 24th which is been a loss of 31,055 hours of care to communities.
Locally this has been felt greatly at the Seaforth hospital with 17 closures, 20 in Walkerton and 31 in Wingham. Furthermore the Clinton ED has been closed daily from 6pm-8am since December of 2019.
A growing number of local hospitals are at risk of permanently losing services.
- The local emergency department in Chesley has been closing evenings, overnight and on weekends since December 5, 2022.
- Clinton’s emergency department has been closed from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. since December 2019.
- The town of Durham in Western Ontario has had at least 51 emergency department closures in 2023 to date.
- Seaforth has had 17 temporary emergency department closures this year, Walkerton has had 20 and Wingham has had 31.
- The Fort Erie and Port Colborne urgent care centres permanently closed overnight on July 5, and;
- The Minden hospital’s emergency department permanently closed on June 1.
- In Hearst, more than an hour away from the nearest hospital, labour and delivery has been closed for months.
- Communities as remote as Red Lake and Manitoulin Island have warned they are on the brink of closures.
Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition says across Midwestern Ontario, patients in medical crises are having to confirm on their own if their local hospital ED is open or closed who is calling for more action from the ford government to address the issues.