Whereas, on December 22, 2021, the Municipality of Arran-Elderslie passed a motion regarding a request for the Province of Ontario to consider conducting a third-party review at their own expense to address the provincial wide issue of nursing shortages and the critical impacts of such on the local health care services within Bruce County;
Whereas, as a result of this nursing shortage the South Bruce Grey Health Centre has now implemented overnight emergency room closures at the Walkerton Hospital and modified the inpatient unit at the Chesley Hospital in addition to the existing closed overnight emergency services in Chesley;
Whereas, these changes have put an unnecessary additional burden on the surrounding hospitals to accommodate these lost services, impacting our first responders and the community at large;
Whereas, Brockton has identified that in the interim to a Provincial review they would be proceeding to undertake an independent third-party review directly using an external consultant for the total cost of $10,000. Brockton would be seeking partnerships from the County, Municipalities of South Bruce and Arran-Elderslie to pay their proportionate share of costs of $2,500 each.
Whereas, Brockton has identified the review would take approximately 85 hours of consulting time and estimated to be completed within 3 to 4 weeks;
Whereas, on December 23, the Bruce County Executive Committee passed a resolution supporting the County’s contribution of $2,500 towards this review;
Whereas, the Municipality of Arran-Elderslie continue to strongly recommend that the province take the lead on a review, however in the interim support Brockton’s independent review and offer $2,500 in support of their review;
Whereas, the Municipality of Arran-Elderslie as a contributor to this review would request that their staff participate in the process, including the finalization of the scope of work of the review, participate in any working groups, etc.
Now therefore be it resolved, that a copy of this motion be provided to the County of Bruce, Municipality of South Bruce and the Town of Brockton and to MPP Bill Walker Bruce Grey Owen Sound, MPP Lisa Thompson Huron Bruce.