The Georgian Bay General Hospital has two locations, one in Penetanguishene and the other in Midland, but a group of local residents are concerned that might not be the case for much longer.

Don Copping says the process to close the hospital in Penetanguishene has already started.

“The threat of closure was announced in June or July and by the end of November, in four weeks, those patients will be gone.”

The group insists the Penetanguishnene location should remain open to serve the aging population. Anne Robitaille is especially concerned about the loss of palliative care beds within the community, close to family.

“When it's somebody you don't know you feel like just a number but when it's somebody who cares and loves you, you can feel that and it makes you feel better.”

Fifteen years ago the community petitioned the province and raised the money to set up a dialysis unit in Penetanguishene but that too will be moved to Midland within the next two years.

“We have palliative, complex care and dialysis. We want to keep it all,” says Irene Miles.

By closing the location in Penetanguishne, the hospital board was hoping to balance its budget but It hasn't turned out that way because the hospital received even less money than expected from the province and it still faces a deficit of $1.2 million.

Georgian Bay General's CEO Karen McGrath says the hospital board remains committed to merging the two locations into one viable hospital with dialysis and some palliative care.  But even medium sized hospitals are struggling to find enough money to maintain existing services.

“We are facing a situation with our budget deficit that is a concern to us obviously, we are forced now to look at the impact on services, we can no longer tinker around the edges, we can no longer close support services we have done all of that, we are now forced to look at closing services and that is a great concern to our board.”

The board is meeting Thursday night decide how to  manage the deficit but it's expected that the money will be borrowed and added to the hospitals long term debt which would total $12 million.