Minden emergency department to close permanently

Minden residents are devastated after the sudden announcement that its hospital's emergency department will close.

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On Monday, Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) decided to close its emergency department on June 1, citing staffing shortages and difficulties in hiring and retaining health care employees.

After the ER closes, the health service said all calls for service would be redirected to Haliburton's hospital, roughly 30 minutes away.

"This just came completely out of the blue," said Minden Hills Mayor Bob Carter. "Fundamentally, did this have to take place at all and if it did, doing it in this way is really bad implementation."

Carter said the township received no consultation regarding the closure, only a notification late Wednesday night that it would happen.

"Haliburton Highlands Health Services has engaged with our local elected officials many times over the past 18 months," read a statement from Haliburton Highlands Health Services. "We have struggled to deal with our serious staffing shortages. We have been open about those challenges with each of our four townships in Haliburton County."

The health service recently consulted officials through a robust strategic planning process.

"There was never a mention that our emergency department would be closing," Carter said. "We have for some time at the county level tried to get ourselves onto the board of HHHS, and HHHS has resisted that, so this type of thing happens."

According to the mayor, the closure will come during Minden's busiest time of the year.

In the summer months, the population can triple with cottagers from southern cities.

Should an increase in calls for service happen, he said, then that could overburden the town's paramedic service.

"We could see a situation where our volunteer fire department has to help with paramedic-related calls," he added.

The province echoed HHHS's claim that it's struggling to recruit new workers.

Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott said it's doing what it can to attract new workers to its rural healthcare system and that these issues have been coming for a long time.

"Haliburton's hospital has actually applied for CT Scan and diagnostic upgrades though, for example," Scott said. "Which is needed in the community, but it also helps attract health force employees, human resources."

Residents are left desperately hoping the closure will be reversed.

Louise Docherty is a long-time Minden resident and broke her neck over one year ago.

"Without that hospital, I don't know what some of us would do," Docherty said. "They were the ones that recognized my neck was broken, and now they can't fix it, and it hasn't healed, so I need that hospital close to me."

For its part, HHHS said the ER closure only partially alleviates some of its staffing concerns. Its statement added that it is actively looking to recruit more nurses and physicians as soon as possible.