Some changes are coming to the Saugeen Memorial Hospital in Southampton.
Grey Bruce Health Services President and CEO Maureen Solecki says renovations are going to be made in the lab area.
Solecki says the area is traditionally congested each morning and they’re going to make it bigger in order to get the people through more quickly.
She also says there’s an issue that has to be addressed involving patients who need an alternate level of care.
Solecki says many patients have completed their acute-care stay but may need additional care either at home or at a long term care facility.
The problem is the patients are waiting for those services to be in place.
The hospital’s challenge is to keep the acute-care numbers down in the hospital in order to have beds available for patients who need to come in for an acute-care stay.
Solecki also says additional support from Health Force Ontario will resume in June to help keep the emergency services open during the summer at the Southampton facility.
It was about a year ago that there was talk of cutting back the hours of the emergency department because of a lack of doctors.
That issue was solved through Health Force Ontario and new doctors coming to the region.
Solecki says they continue to recruit physicians who would be interested in emergency care as well as their regular practices.
