Haliburton Highlands Health Services Emergency Department Consolidation Update

May 18, 2023

To Our Valued Community,

As you may have heard by now, the difficult decision was made by HHHS to bring all of our emergency and in-patient (acute) service together at the Haliburton site.

This means that as of June 1, 2023, emergency services will no longer be available at the Minden site. Minden & the surrounding community will be able to access emergency services at the Haliburton site. Anyone experiencing a medical emergency should continue to call 911.

We know how much the community wants to have an Emergency Department (ED) in Minden. This decision was made so HHHS can continue to maintain high-quality health services for everyone in Haliburton County. It will help us run a more sustainable operation in the long-term, while supporting the well-being of our staff and physicians.

There is a global health human resources crisis when it comes to nursing and medical staff, as well as support workers. This is not new, but we’ve felt the effects of it here at our local level. The organization fought as hard and as long as it could to keep the both EDs open, but with no long-term solutions in sight, it couldn’t go on any longer. Having more staff available at a single site will help create a more stable staffing situation overall, and it means more sustainable ED services for all of Haliburton County.

It also means we can do more to support our staff and physicians. The pressure to keep two emergency departments open during this crisis, on top of the personal and professional sacrifices it has demanded over the past 18 months straight, has been unbelievable. We have to support our staff, so they can keep protecting and caring for our patients.

With the only in-patient beds in the County being located at the Haliburton site, this change means that anyone who comes to the ED and needs to be admitted to our hospital can do so without having to be transferred, when beds are available. Keeping the ED connected to these beds also means there is after-hours medical coverage available for the in-patient unit in the event of a medical emergency.

Additional information is available at www.hhhs.ca/news. Questions can be directed to the Office of the CEO at mhenry@hhhs.ca or 705-457-2527.

Carolyn Plummer President & CEO           

David O’Brien Chair, Board of Directors

Frequently Asked Questions

Additional FAQ avaialable at www.hhhs.ca/news Question Response

Why is the Haliburton location being kept open instead of the Minden location?
With the HHHS in-patient department already located in Haliburton, anyone who needs to be admitted to our hospital from the Emergency Department (ED) will not have to be transported to another site. The Minden site is not suitable for permanent in-patient beds. It would require over a million dollars in renovation costs, and likely more, as well as a multi-year approval and renovation process to try to create an in-patient space in Minden, and even then, there would be fewer beds (6 – 10 beds) than what is currently available at the Haliburton site (15 beds).

Why is this a permanent change?
It has taken extraordinary measures over the past 18 months to keep both of HHHS’ EDs open, including many personal and professional sacrifices by our staff. There were more than 20 official ‘close calls’ for in 2022, which would have required short-notice temporary closures, but there were also many more unofficial close calls involving nursing staff shortages at both sites. Sometimes these close calls were happening on a weekly basis, and would have required the closure of both EDs at the same time. The organization fought as hard and as long as it could to keep the both EDs open, but with no long-term solutions in sight, it couldn’t go on any longer.
A temporary closure would not address the broader staffing crisis HHHS is experiencing, and it would not give staff or the community the certainty they need when it comes to delivering and receiving emergency care.

Why is this happening now?
HHHS couldn’t keep going the way it has been and keep the two sites open. HHHS would not have made it through the summer without multiple, short-notice (sometimes just 2 hours) temporary closures, which would have been impossible to properly communicate to the community.

What will happen to the Minden site? Is the entire hospital closing?
Other services will continue at the Minden site, including Hyland Crest Long-Term Care, ambulatory clinics (physiotherapy, x-ray and bone densitometry by appointment) and Community Programs that use space at the Minden site, like the Adult Day Program and Diabetes Education Program.
HHHS is exploring all options for the Minden Emergency Department space that would serve the healthcare needs of the community.

How will you accommodate additional patient volumes and need for parking at the Haliburton site?
HHHS has been prepared for a temporary closure of one or both EDs for many months, and has run through various scenarios with its staff teams in terms of how emergency services would operate with only one ED.
HHHS is working with its staff teams, as well as Ontario Health East and the Ministry of Health, to ensure we have sufficient staff and physician coverage. Patient spaces in the Haliburton ED will increase from 9 to 14/15, waiting room spaces will increase from 14 to 27, and patient parking spaces will increase from 11 to 26. Laboratory space is also being expanded, and other reconfiguration of space will occur to accommodate the greater volumes.