Members of the general medical staff (GMS) at Headwaters Health Care Centre (HHCC) say they are more concerned about their lack of adequate time for consideration of alternatives than about the proposal to move 22 beds to Orangeville from the Shelburne campus.

According to executive members of the medical staff and to Dr. Gordon Willans, who acted as a non-executive spokesman at the recent public meeting in Shelburne, the staff first learned of the recommendation on Oct. 15, when they understood the Headwaters board was to vote on it at its November meeting.

The GMS is represented on the board by Dr. David Josephson and Dr. Ronald Murphy, the staff-elected president and vice-president of the GMS respectively.

In a phone interview, Dr. Josephson acknowledged that there are different opinions about the proposed move, but said the majority of GMS at a meeting on Nov. 15 supported a resolution to request that the hospital board defer its decision so as to allow sufficient time for full consideration.

GMS secretary Dr. Louise Ann Keevil says there are 60 doctors on “the active roster.” In a phone interview Tuesday, she said there was “a very good attendance” at the association’s meeting following the administrative announcement of a recommendation that the Shelburne beds be transferred as a cost-cutting move. “We were asking for a bit of time. It’s a drastic change,” she said.

A third physician on the board, Dr. Jeff McKinnon, was appointed by the board and acts as both chief of staff and chairman of the medical advisory committee (MAC), which comprises all department heads and is responsible for overseeing the quality of health care, including recommendations for granting privileges to doctors.

The doctors point out that the Shelburne facility has always qualified for accreditation, and that both Headwaters president Cholly Boland and board chair Margot Hornseth, along with GMS executives, have acknowledged there is no criticism of the level of care being afforded patients there.

Mr. Boland, in a brief phone interview Wednesday, said the bedmove recommendation will come forward at the board meeting of Tuesday, Jan. 19.

He said the board has been discussing it “for months,” adding that the subject will come forward “for further discussion and a decision. I don’t see much change happening in [the next] week and a half.”

The GMS spokesmen speak of Shelburne as a rehabilitation or convalescent centre, and see no need for immediate access to specialized acute care for patients sent to Shelburne.

As well, they speak of the Shelburne campus as a rehabilitation or convalescent centre, and see no need for its patients having immediate access to specialized acute care.

“Patients transferred to Shelburne are not going to be transferred if that is required,” said Dr. Josephson. Dr. Keevil added that “there are facilities available at Shelburne” that are not at Orangeville. She mentioned therapy and even the simple privilege of patients being about “to dine together.”

If the move of Shelburne beds happens as presented, the total of beds for HHCC would be reduced by 13, i.e. to 87 from the present 100 between the two sites.

The reduction would downgrade HHCC to Category C from its present B. Although this is not financially significant, it would mean Headwaters would no longer be evaluated on the provincial hospitals report card applying to Category A (teaching hospitals) and B (hospitals with 100 or more beds).