The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance's new executives say there will be no service changes at the Sydenham District Hospital for the time being.
"Our call of action to our quality committee and our medical advisory committee has been to provide safe, good quality, cost-effective care," says Supervisor Rob Devitt.
Devitt says it's frankly too early to address the future of Wallaceburg's hospital, particularly its emergency department. This after rumours that, under the CKHA's old regime, the ER would be downgraded to an "emergency access centre."
Since the Alliance's CEO and COO left the organization, the emergency room issue has gone under the radar. Devitt says this is because they need to plan out the hospital's governance model and hire a new CEO.
"We can't just jump to that. We've to start with a process, to come up with a vision to answer those questions [about the emergency room]," says Devitt.
The supervisor adds he and Interim CEO Ken Deane have visited the Sydenham campus multiple times, and have had multiple town hall meetings there.
He concludes they need to walk before they can run, adding Wallaceburg's hospital presents its own challenges on top of the ones they're already dealing with.
"The Wallaceburg site offers some complexity, in terms of what the mix of programs are, what services there are. Those are big questions," says Devitt.