
South East Grey Community Health Centre Rural Healthcare Symposium Poster (Image from Eventbrite)
The South East Grey Community Health Centre is holding a Rural Healthcare Symposium event this later this month for municipal officials and industry professionals.
Executive Director Alex Hector says the event on June 20 at the Osprey Community Centre will focus on how local elected municipal leaders can discuss ways to improve rural healthcare.
“Typically when people talk about the healthcare system, they default to talking about the hospital. The healthcare system is much more than the hospital, the hospital plays a very important role, but there are other parts of the healthcare system that are also as important, if not more important,” says Hector.
Based on discussions he has had with municipal councillors, Hector feels that by talking about and conveying all aspects of the healthcare system, municipal officials will be able to more effectively advocate on behalf of their communities for rural healthcare.
“The healthcare system is somewhat complex and there are a lot of different components,” says Hector. “I don’t think we have done a good job explaining exactly what that system is and how it functions. As a consequence, people when they talk about healthcare, sometimes they are not using the same language. One person may be talking about their doctor, another person might be talking about their hospital, another person might be talking about their mom in long term care.”
The symposium will include an expert panel discussion about primary care, acute care, long term care, home and community care, and mental health. It will also touch on the the successes and challenges of the healthcare system.
There will also be a table discussion following the panel about opportunities and possible actions to take.
“I think we all hear about issues and concerns on the news and I don’t want to downplay all of that, it’s very valid there are issues and challenges, but there are also successes. There are things that are going well in terms of the healthcare system and what I am hoping to do is to enable the sectors to provide that balance perspective and hopefully we can look towards what we have encountered in terms of success or things that we are proudest of to may be help us overcome some of the issues and challenges,” says Hector.
The event is being limited to healthcare professionals, government officials, and people in the industry.