Minden residents petition Ontario government to pause closure of emergency department

Residents of Minden, Ont. are speaking out over the upcoming closure of their community's emergency department in June and are calling on the province to delay the closure until the public has had its say.

The residents submitted a petition to the Ontario government at Queen's Park on Thursday, asking the provincial health ministry to delay the permanent closure of the Minden emergency department for at least one year. More than 3,300 signatures were collected.

Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS), which runs hospital sites in Haliburton and Minden, announced on April 20 that it would close the emergency department at its Minden site on June 1. The local health board intends to consolidate its emergency services at its Haliburton site, an approximately 25-minute drive away, due to what it says are nursing and medical staff shortages.

Patrick Porzuczek, a resident, said the closure will jeopardize health care in the community 140 kilometres northwest of Toronto. He rejected the suggestion that there are shortages, saying nurses are available to work at the hospital. 

"With health care, it's supposed to be safe, it's supposed to be accessible and it's supposed to be quality. Right now, what the HHHS board is doing is they're taking away accessibility and the quality is not going to be there. We need to stop this ER from closing," Porzuczek said.

"We don't know what's going on, we need answers, and that's why we're here today."

Richard Bradley, another resident, said people will leave town because of the closure and that health care services will be cut in half. Emergency departments save lives, he added.

"Everybody at some point needs emergency services and health care. We can't plan when emergencies happen. But we can plan how to cover the emergencies when they happen," he said.

Minister says decision made 'carefully'

In question period on Thursday, NDP MPP France Gélinas asked Health Minister Sylvia Jones if she would pause the closure. Gelinas said the Minden emergency department had 13,000 visits last year.

"This town of 7,000 people triples in size through the summer, with the seasonal residents and tourists that come to the area, yet no one was consulted on this decision to close the emergency department," Gélinas said.

Jones, for her part, said local health boards make decisions independent of the ministry.

"We have been assured that the Haliburton Highlands Health Services board and leadership have made this decision carefully and thoughtfully, understanding and appreciating the needs of their community and their staff. I will let them do that work," Jones said.

In a statement later on Thursday, Hannah Jensen, press secretary for the health minister, said the ministry is aware the emergency departments are under pressure.

"We know the status quo is not working and more needs to be done," she said.

"We are taking an all-hands-on deck approach to building a more connected and convenient healthcare system so Ontarians across the province can have access to more services in their community, shorter wait times and greater access to high-quality care."

According to the ministry, the Minden site has been used primarily to stabilize patients before they are dispatched to larger centres and it does not have any inpatient beds. Often, patients at the Minden site would be transported to Haliburton to receive acute care. The ministry said Minden site will remain open for some services.

Local health board defends 'tough decision'

Carolyn Plummer, president and CEO of HHHS, said in a statement on Thursday that its board of directors made the "tough decision" to close the emergency department to maintain quality patient care in all of Haliburton County. The decision means more of its staff will be able to work at one emergency department.

"In 2022 alone, we had more than 20 official 'close calls' where we would have needed to temporarily close one or both of our emergency departments on very short notice because of staffing shortages," she said.

"This summer would have been worse, with a serious risk of multiple, short-notice, temporary emergency department closures, which would have been extremely challenging to communicate to the community and avoid confusion about where they should go for emergency care."

As for the lack of public consultation, Plummer said HHHS "had to act" to ensure it could continue to provide emergency services.

"This was an operational decision, based on the local realities of the global staffing crisis. It was informed by the experiences and unbelievable pressures on our staff team over the past 18 months, as well as planning discussions that were undertaken to address the risk of temporary closures," she said.

"If we could have delayed it, we would have. HHHS can no longer sustain our operations the way they are running now, with two emergency departments."