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The answer is no.

The Champlain LHIN boss, Dr. Robert Cushman, has practically ridiculed the Cornwall Community Hospital for proposing to place 30 convalescent beds in the hospital to help deal with the growth of alternate level of care (ALC) patients. According to Cushman, the proposal is a 'knee jerk reaction'.

How on earth does this fit with the Health Minister's new plan to create more short term 'restorative' beds?

This response is also disappointing as the North East LHIN recently added 136 convalescent beds to the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional Hospital (for at least a year) to deal with their growth of ALC patients. It also seems the Central East LHIN will postpone the proposed cut of convalescent beds at Northumberland Hills Hospital for a year.

Dr. Peter Zallan, of the Sudbury ALC Committee, notes that the creation of new convalescent beds at the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional was important: "Without the Memorial site, this place wouldn't be functioning at all.... We did the quick victory and got tangible results."

The next "fixes" won't be quick he added. "All the other stuff is much harder."
The creation of the convalescent beds helped reduce ALC occupancy from 30% to just 15% of the hospital's beds.

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