One hospital, three emergency departments

Latest QHC budget solution will downgrade PECMH and TMH

Even as it slashed services at Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital (PECMH) and Trenton Memorial (TMH) over the past decade and a half, officials at Quinte Health Care (QHC) consistently held to the mythology that it was one integrated hospital operating across four sites. Now that façade has tumbled down.

Under the weight of QHC’s perennial struggle to balance its budget, the hospital corporation relented this week, acknowledging what had been increasingly apparent since amalgamation—that it really sees its organization as one hospital and three emergency departments that also do some other things. That list of other things, however, grows shorter with each QHC budget crisis.

QHC said on Monday it was looking for ways to close an $11.5 million gap in its budget.

The hospital corporation proposes to move 2,400 day surgeries from Trenton to Belleville. Beds are likely to be cut from hospitals in Trenton and Picton and added to BGH.

“Almost all secondary level services would then be consolidated at BGH in order to deliver them in a cost-efficient and highquality manner,” said QHC CEO Mary Clare Egberts in a statement issued on Monday, “particularly given our relatively small and decreasing volumes in this region.”

To do this, QHC proposes two classes of hospitals. Primary care hospitals in North Hastings, Trenton and Picton, will be reduced to emergency care, basic diagnostic and some inpatient beds. BGH will centralize all other services as a regional secondary hospital.

In the near term, QHC proposes to keep some endoscopic procedures in Picton and a token number of day surgeries in Trenton, but is signalling it will eventually consolidate all these services in Belleville. QHC knows its budget problems will likely require even more drastic measures.

Despite the stark delineation QHC has now drawn between BGH and its three junior sites, vice-chair Doug McGregor stayed true to the hospital corporation’s well-worn script.

“QHC and its board remain committed to the future of all four of our hospitals,” said McGregor in the statement. “Trenton Memorial Hospital, Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital, North Hastings Hospital and Belleville General Hospital are all here to stay, and they will each have—at a minimum—a 24-hour emergency room, inpatient beds and diagnostic services.”

Depending on how well QHC officials manage to keep the financial wolves outside its door, residents in Quinte West and Prince Edward County are likely to learn—ooner rather than later— what that minimum looks like.

Between now and the end of the month, QHC will hear feedback from the community, physicians and staff about the plan or, more specifically, how its plan will be implemented.

It is expected to be approved at a November meeting of QHC’s board and implemented in the spring.