Not going away

“What kind of person are you?” POOCH leader Dave Gray asks Mary Clare Egberts how she can cut hospital beds in a community of seniors.

QHC officials face protestors in Wellington

About 30 POOCH supporters (Patrons of Our County Hospital) greeted QHC CEO Mary Clare Egberts and Chair Brian Smith early Tuesday morning in Wellington. Egberts was in Wellington to address the Rotary Club about cuts to Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital and what they mean to this community.

POOCH supporters are angry and frustrated that beds, services and staffing have been cut disproportionately at the Picton hospital in favour of Belleville General Hospital. Most carried signs demanding the return of the hospital to local hands— away from Belleville-centred management that has for a decade or more now, when facing financial pressure, used the Picton hospital as a reserve account—moving resources from Picton and Trenton to shore up Belleville.

Egberts and Smith addressed the crowd gathered outside the Legion Hall before the Rotary Club meeting. Smith said QHC shared the same goal as those waving placards a few feet away.

“We want to save your hospital just as much as you do and we’ll work together to do that,” said Smith. “We’re not working at cross purposes here folks. We understand your concerns and were going to do the very best we can with the resources we have to do that.”

But his words rang hollow for some. In the most recent round of cuts confirmed last month, Picton hospital will lose 40 per cent of its remaining beds as well as the nursing staff that care for these patients. Even before the cuts were announced, the hospital was often over capacity—with patients cared for in hallways and the emergency department.

BGH, meanwhile, is set to lose just five per cent of its beds and nursing resources.

“Why can’t we deliver babies in our community anymore?” asked Wellington resident and business person Maria Rogers.

“You are still going to have your hospital,” said Egberts.

But with just 12 beds and ever-diminishing services, it is getting harder for many to believe the QHC administrator. Particularly as the pressures on the health care system in general, and QHC specifically, are unlikely to abate. Many of these folks worry Picton will inevitably be reduced to a “bandage station” where patients are stabilized before being transported to a full-service hospital.

“Look at all these faces,” said Dave Gray to Egberts. “They’ve worked all their life and supported a system to give them health care in their community. Now they’ve retired and you’ve gone in and chopped their bloody hospital up. What kind of person are you?”

QHC officials then moved inside to speak to the Rotarians.