‘A different mandate’: Southlake is asking Bradford residents to help shape its future

A local nursing campus, better integration with family doctors, more beds to end nursing down the hall and an addiction and mental health rehab center were all on the table Tuesday night.

About 25 residents and several council members joined senior staff from Southlake Regional Health Center in Newmarket for a public meeting at the BWG Leisure Center on May 14 to discuss and provide feedback on how the hospital can grow and expand its facilities and services in the coming period. decade.

Paul Woods, MD, president and CEO at Southlake, opened the community engagement session with a quick overview of why the hospital is seeking public feedback as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.^th anniversary and begins work on its next master plan, following the conclusions of its 2019-24 strategic plan.

“Hospitals have traditionally been the bricks and mortar where people go when they’re sick to stop getting sick, but I think hospitals really have a different mandate going forward,” he said, explaining that the mindset about health and wellness services are likely to be exchange. “What do you need to feel supported by your hospital?”

Before the audience had a chance to answer that question, Shannon Brett, Director of Strategy, gave a brief overview of the services currently available at the hospital in Newmarket and other locations in Georgina, Alliston and Toronto, including prevention, primary , emergency and transitional care.

Tyler Chalk, vice president of strategy, analytics and communications, went on to provide context of how the hospital has grown, saying that between 2003 and 2023, the number of beds there has increased by about 34 percent to 486, but the department urgently visit more. than doubled to 119,074 from 57,004, and the number of patient days increased by 47% to 133,803.

Greeted with this information, Brett and other staff members helped divide the audience into five groups to discuss five different questions.

Group 1 was asked “How would you describe the current health care needs and challenges in the community” and some of their responses included:

• better integration of aged care, nursing homes and long-term care homes with the hospital
• increasing social services and mental health support
• increasing transportation from Bradford to Southlake
• reducing paramedic discharge times and increasing emergency department flow

Group 2 was asked “What are your expectations for the quality of care, patient safety, and patient experience while at Southlake?” and some of their answers included:

• compassionate and kind staff
• accessible services
• access to education and information for patients and families
• ensuring that health records can be more easily transferred to other health care providers, preferably through a province-wide digital platform

Group 3 was asked “How can Southlake contribute to promoting health and wellness initiatives in the community?” and some of their answers included:

• developing stronger partnerships in the community, particularly with GPs and nurses to help people find care in the community without going to hospital
• providing more education about the resources available to patients and family members
• improving telehealth to direct callers to services in their community rather than the hospital

Group 4 was asked “How can we ensure that our strategy reflects the diverse needs and perspectives of the community we serve?” and some of their answers included:

• delivering affordable connected care, especially close to where people live
• improving parking options for patients who need to make repeated trips to the hospital for ongoing treatment
• offering more smaller community facilities
• ensuring that staff reflect the patient population, understand cultural sensitivities and provide translation services

Group 5 addressed Southlake’s plan to build a new hospital in a new location in addition to redeveloping the current Davis Drive location and was asked “What do you think are the most important factors to consider in deciding where to locate the new site ?” and some of their answers included:

• building the hospital near Bradford
• choosing a location with less traffic than Davis Drive but still accessible to public transportation
• ensuring the site has enough room for future growth and planning 20 years ahead
• location of the hospital near the population and the workforce

Chalk thanked everyone for their feedback and noted that there were some common themes with the first of six sessions held in East Gwillimbury on May 7.

“It is amazing. There is so much great feedback,” he said. “The good news is that many of these themes are similar to what we’re hearing from both our staff and our doctors and our nurses and other communities.”

Local resident Ryan Charron called the encounter “interesting.”

“It was good for Southlake to get feedback from people,” he said.

He called the statistics presented on the increase in hospital use “amazing”, especially for the alternative level of care (ALC).

Before the break sessions, Chalk also pointed out that from 2003 to 2023, ALC patient days increased by 532% to 18,216. Patients with ALC no longer require acute care, but still need assistance with daily living and may remain in hospital, occupying a hospital bed while waiting to be moved to a nursing home, in a long-term care home or in a residential care home.

While the province-wide issue is not unique to Southlake, Chalk explained that it is expected to continue to have an increasing impact as the percentage of the population aged 75 and over is expected to continue to grow.

To help address this issue, he explained that Southlake began implementing the “really proactive” Southlake@home program in 2018, which created direct partnerships between the hospital and both primary care and home care providers, to enable people to stay healthy while living independently in their own home.

Next, Chalk said the hospital is looking to partner more with community groups that help people get to appointments, run errands, do laundry, access Meals on Wheels and more.

A summary of feedback from all community meetings is expected to be available in September or October. Future meetings are also planned in:

• Georgina, Wednesday, May 22 — The Link, 20849 Dalton Rd., Sutton
• Newmarket, Tuesday, May 28 — Newmarket Community Center and Lions Hall, 200 Doug Duncan Drive Newmarket
• Aurora, Thursday, June 13 — Aurora City Hall, 100 John West Way, Aurora

For more information or to register, visit southlake.ca.