The warden of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough says it’s a dire situation now that the region doesn’t have overnight ER coverage.
The emergency department at Guysborough Memorial Hospital will close between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. on an ongoing basis starting Thursday.
Vernon Pitts, the municipality’s warden, says the loss of overnight coverage is a major blow.
Pitts tells The Hawk his biggest fear is the hospital might close altogether.
“It’s a cornerstone of any community, and if you remove one of the cornerstones of any building, the building is doomed to collapse- I think this is just one step down that road,” he says. “What I would like to do is just stop where we are right now- let’s refocus, get a targeted approach, and go forward.”
Pitts says he has nothing but thanks for the two doctors who had been keeping the ER open; officials with the Nova Scotia Health Authority have said those doctors could no longer keep up the coverage alone.
He says municipal officials have done a significant amount of work to bring to health care professionals to the area, and a reduction of ER coverage is an insult to the work they’ve done.
“I’m going to lay the blame right at the province’s feet,” he says. “It’s a provincial responsibility- doctor recruitment (and) retention.”
Pitts says the ongoing overnight closure of Eastern Memorial Hospital in Canso means there’s nowhere to go in the municipality for emergency medical care at night.
