MINTO ‒ Looking to the future, a local councillor wants the township to consider implementing more concrete rural healthcare strategies.
During a council meeting Tuesday afternoon, deputy mayor Jean Anderson used the town of Essex’s letter to Premier Doug Ford about delayed ambulance response times and gaps in healthcare as an opportunity to discuss Minto’s personal challenges.
The letter asked for a solution to address hospital deficiencies on an underlying basis while recognizing the dangerous strain facing local emergency response infrastructure and urgently working to address these gaps in the rural healthcare system.
“The problem is becoming increasingly severe across our area as well,” said Anderson.”(The ambulance delays are) becoming more and more concerning and no one has an answer for it.”
Citing her work in Guelph General Hospital’s emergency department last weekend, Anderson said they were down 50 per cent of their staff and that some ambulances were asked to park because of the line-ups, causing further delays.
But without access to a family doctor and rural walk-in clinics like Minto’s moving to appointment-only, Anderson said many patients shared that they had no choice but to go to the emergency department.
“The basic problem is lack of primary care, we know that we’re struggling with that…(but this influx of patients) totally overwhelms the services we have available,” said Anderson. “I don’t know that we have any solutions but I think it’s something we should keep on our radar.”
Acknowledging the township’s efforts to recruit more healthcare professionals, Anderson said that she feels there “hasn’t been a lot of luck.”
“They’re not wanting to come up to the rural areas to start their own offices,” said Anderson. “It’s an alarming situation.”
Agreeing with Anderson, Mayor Dave Turton said that the issue has been discussed during county council numerous times but that he’s not sure sending an additional letter to the province is a solution.
“I’m sure Mr. Ford knows (this is a problem),” said Turton. “But will the squeaky wheel get the grease? I don’t know.”
Nonetheless, Anderson shared that she feels it's essential for their seniors to have access to healthcare within the town.
“It’s an impossible situation for our seniors on fixed incomes,” said Anderson. “They shouldn’t have to rely on a clinic that is 15 or 20 minutes away when transportation is also an issue in our rural area.”
One idea Anderson suggested was that the township consider lobbying the Minister of Health for a nurse practitioner-led clinic that would allow nurse practitioners to build a patient roster while reducing a physician's workload.
She also asked that the township consider opening the budget and looking into funding its own healthcare space in the future.
“I see a dire emergency coming forward,” said Anderson. “We need to do something to meet the needs of our community.”
Having sent a supporting letter in June, council agreed to reach out to the town of Essex directly to get an update on progress and brainstorm future solutions.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
