The Friends of Kincardine Hospital, along with Kincardine and Huron-Kinloss Council have met to talk about issues affecting the hospital.
15 members of the Friends attended the meeting Thursday night.
Chair Gregg McClelland stated their concerns over how the South Bruce Grey Health Centre Board and management operate, the loss of services at the Kincardine Hospital, and staff morale at the facility.
He says the idea of separating from South Bruce-Grey is “on the back burner” right now while other solutions are looked at.
Those include having some form of municipal influence over representation on the board.
Comparisons were made to Hanover’s hospital board, where the town’s Deputy Mayor is a member.
The three groups agreed to each begin efforts to see if governance changes are possible.
The Friends will use money from their own fundraising to hire a consultant to study possible solutions.
McClelland says a total review of governance will be done and the consultants will discover how offside the structure of the 21-member board is, and a report will also be done on what is happening in the hospital.
Kincardine Mayor Larry Kraemer and Huron-Kinloss Mayor Mitch Twolan will talk with councils in other municipalities (Brockton, Arran-Elderslie, West Grey) home to South Bruce-Grey Health Centre hospitals (Walkerton, Chesley, Durham) about making governance changes.
They also plan to make a presentation to the South Bruce-Grey Health Centre board and hopefully meet with the provincial health minister at a conference in February.
Kraemer says he and Twolan have the Friends’ “blessing” to move forward.
Twolan says they want to talk with the other councils in order to “keep them in the loop,” even though they might not agree with some of the suggestions.
As for the future of the hospital building itself, a consultant’s report on site redevelopment is expected to be released before the end of this month.
McClelland says the outcome of the meeting is a step in the right direction, adding it’s taken a year to get the municipal leaders to realize there are legitimate problems with the hospital and the dissipation of services.
Kincardine Council approved a motion outlining the plans, Huron-Kinloss Council is expected to do the same when they meet on November 16th.