Walkerton Hospital Reducing Services due to Nursing Shortage the Facility

The South Bruce Grey Health Centre announced today that a decision was made at a Special Meeting last week to reduce services at the Walkerton Hospital.

The move that will see the Emergency Department at Walkerton Hospital closed from 8pm to 8am beginning Monday, December 27th is due to nursing staff shortages.

The change has no end date and is indefinite in nature.

Also impacted is the Inpatient Unit at the Chesley Site of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre.

That Unit will see itself converted into a 20-bed Alternate Level of Care Unit to allow for an alternate staffing model to be used with less RNs required.

This type of care are for patients not requiring acute care and are awaiting placement in the community (examples are long term care, group homes or homes with home care supports).

This is an increase from it’s present 10 bed capacity of Alternate Care.

The South Bruce Grey health Centre says they have been facing significant staff shortages for the past 5 years, particularly in nursing.