The South East Grey Community Health Centre’s symposium brought Grey County leaders together last week to talk rural healthcare.
The event on Friday welcomed representatives from Chatsworth, Grey Highlands, Southgate, West Grey, Meaford, Melancthon, as well as MPP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Paul Vickers, and Grey County Warden Andrea Matrosovs who moderated the event.
South East Grey Community Health Centre Executive Director Alex Hector says, “We are looking at ways of educating and informing our elected officials to understand what the current state of healthcare is in rural Grey County, looking at it from a balanced perspective, both in terms of what the various organizations do, what their current state is, what they are proud of, their successes, as well as what challenges and issues they face. The objective there was really to educate and inform our elected officials should they encounter folks from Queen’s Park so that they can engage in a meaningful dialogue in a very informed way.”
He says one of the key issues and challenges regarding rural healthcare in the region brought up at the event included the current demographic.
“Grey County has a disproportionate share of folks who are in their mid 60s right now, so we have a generally older population compared to the Ontario average, and that wave of demographics is beginning to impact the healthcare system and over the next couple of years and as people age, their needs for the healthcare system are going to grow and we know that institutional care is very expensive and also difficult to access because of the tings like wait lists and so on,” says Hector. “We see a tsunami on the horizon and we need to figure out ways of getting ready for that.”
He adds funding also remains one of the other biggest concerns.
“For several of the healthcare agencies that are funded outside of the hospital environment have real significant challenges in terms of recruitment and retention and a lot of that is due to wage funding that is below market and makes it difficult for young people who are entering the system to be able to take advantage of positions. The province has a very important initiative underway to expand access to primary care across the province and our region is doing a great job in terms of participating in that and requesting funding, but at the same time, as we get positions funded, it’s going to become more and more challenging to fill those positions because of wages that are not competitive and because of a small talent pool,” says Hector.
The event did try to make the discussions balanced by also highlighting the positives and successes of rural healthcare.
“We need to use those successes in ways that will inspire us and give us the energy and hopefully the insights to overcome some of the challenges. The participants that we had generally left feeling very positive about the meeting and the information they received, but at the same time, we have got some work to do here in the future,” says Hector.
Hector hopes to have more events like this in the future.