Horizon has informed local leaders of plans to temporarily close inpatient acute care at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. The network plans to convert all inpatient beds at the hospital to transitional care beds for patients who are waiting for long term care placement.
On Friday evening, Pat Estabrooks and John Higham, the co-chairs of the Memramcook-Tantramar Rural Health Action Group, received a letter from Horizon’s VP of clinical services, Eileen MacGibbon, making the announcement. MacGibbon gave no timeline, and attributed the move to the ongoing nursing shortage at the hospital.
The letter says that “going forward, Sackville patients who require acute care will be transferred to Horizon’s The Moncton Hospital.”
This latest move, although deemed temporary, means services at the Sackville Memorial Hospital are even more reduced today than they would have been had cuts announced in February 2020 gone through.
Just under 2 years ago, then Horizon CEO Karen McGrath announced a reduction in services to six rural hospitals, including the Sackville Memorial Hospital. The plan would have reduced existing 24/7 ER services by about one third, down to 16 hours per day, between 8am and midnight. It would also have converted acute care beds at the hospital to long term care beds.
After a massive outcry across the province, including protests at community hospitals, the provincial government pulled the plug. The plan was scrapped and a province wide consultation was promised before a new plan would be proposed.
That consultation did eventually happen, and recently the province introduced a two-year health reform plan which includes no service cuts. And yet, rural and small town hospitals have seen cuts similar or worse than those proposed in February 2020.
Services in Sackville hospital ER have been cut by two thirds, down to 8 hours per day, between 8am and 4pm. And once the latest announcement is implemented, Sackville’s acute care beds will also be gone, converted to transitional long term care beds, much like the thwarted February 2020 plan promised.
Sackville’s response so far: expressing appreciation for current staff
Members of the Rural Health Action Group met on Sunday to discuss Friday’s announcement and possible responses. So far, plans are afoot for a display of appreciation for hospital staff who have been working through the pandemic and staff shortages.
The group is encouraging local individuals and groups to get creative and make homemade cards, art works, posters, cartoons, poems, or notes that express appreciation for the work of hospital staff. They’ve set up a box at the entrance of the Sackville hospital where these expressions of gratitude can be dropped. They will then be exhibited in the hospital during the Christmas holiday season.
Several local churches are also planning to “raise a joyful noise” by carolling at the hospital in the coming weeks. Here’s the schedule so far, distributed by the Memramcook-Tantramar Community Task Force:
- December 9 noon (Presbyterian)
- December 15, 3:30 (United Church)
- December 16, 6 pm (Anglican)
- December 21, 6 pm (Middle Sackville Baptist)
