Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Sydenham Campus ER in Wallaceburg. (BlackburnNews.com file photo)Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Sydenham Campus ER in Wallaceburg. (BlackburnNews.com file photo)
Chatham

Wallaceburg Hospital Needs A Lifeline: MP

A local MP is worried the delivery of health care services at Sydenham District Hospital is flat-lining.

A report released earlier this year by the Ministry of Health found the hospital's ability to provide services was suffering, amidst turbulence between the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance's three hospital boards.

Bev Shipley, the MP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, has now written a letter to top brass at the CKHA.

He says the Wallaceburg and Walpole Island First Nation communities are fed up no concrete action has been taken, since Supervisor Rob Devitt was appointed by the province to fix the system.

"They haven't seen changes in the health care that's provided," Shipley says. "There may be changes that are happening within the building, but not for the health care from what I've been told. So that was my letter."

Shipley says his constituents in Wallaceburg were optimistic about the findings of the report, but won't accept the status quo for much longer. He says they want an update on the future of their hospital.

"I'm just saying what my constituents are telling me, and actually some of the staff, is that get a meeting together. Sit down and talk to us and give us the status of what you're doing," says Shipley. "That's really what I'm asking because I know it's a complex issue, but at some point in time they have to talk about healthcare."

Shipley says, despite it being a provincial matter, he's raising the issue.

"This is about the constituents in Wallaceburg and Walpole Island," he says. "These are still my constituents that come to me, and so I'm just responding to hopefully bridge a gap between some of the communications."

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