The decision to close the surgical program at the Charlotte County Hospital in St. Stephen, N.B. has sparked outrage among residents in the tight-knit community.
The operating room is scheduled to close in early August with procedures being moved to either Saint John or Fredericton. Low surgical volumes has been given as the main reason for the change.
“We keep losing all our services and we feel powerless,” said Concerned Citizens of Charlotte County co-chair Trudy Higgins.
“It’s as if we don’t count.”
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At the legislature in Fredericton even the community’s MLA appeared to be taken aback by the change.
“This is a decision made by Horizon Health Authority,” said Charlotte-Campobello MLA John Ames.
“This was certainly not a decision made by my government. Certainly not a decision we had planned for.”
Part of the concern is that the decision comes at a time when the community, according to town officials, is going through a growth period.
“We got a focus group, Future St. Stephen, and we’re all going forward working at building our town up with new businesses and population,” said mayor Allan MacEachern.
Higgins says they won’t take the decision lying down and are considering going right to the source.
“It might be interesting to speak to some of the surgeons in Saint John who have such long wait lists of patients who need surgery and they have no O.R. time,” she said.
“I wonder of they would be willing to come to a full service O.R. and relieve some of that stress of all those patients waiting.”
The citizens group says it plans to meet in the near future and plan their next move.
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