Georgian Bay General Hospital losing services and restructuring

Georgian Bay General Hospital (with facilities in the small towns of Midland and Penetang) is losing services.

Recently, Hospital CEO Paul Heinrich told local media what people can expect as the hospital moves forward with its 20-year master plan announced two weeks ago.

"We knew we had to make changes because of the costs involved and the impact on our budget," said Heinrich.

"We will be continuing to change the service mix at GBGH in response to more regionally-based health system design and changes to technology and patient needs."

"For example, in the future, we will likely cease to provide inpatient paediatrics because we do not have the critical mass, expertise and volume that other centres do."

"The divestment of the diabetes education program to the Family Health Team was a very successful project," he added.

"The outpatient lab service is still to be operated by the hospital...We investigated the possibility of divesting it, but discovered there are no community providers willing to take it on...Thus, we decided to consolidate the entire program at one site. We now have five phlebotomy stations and ECG all co-located in our laboratory at the Midland site."

dallan@cupe.ca

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