The 22 long-term-care beds at Shelburne hospital got at least a brief reprieve when Central West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) delayed approval of the Headwaters Health Care Centre (HHCC) budget until it gets more information.

HHCC CEO Cholly Boland said in a phone interview the hospital Board presented its budget to the LHIN last week “but they wanted more information.

“We welcome the chance to give as much information as they need to make a decision,” he said, but wouldn’t elaborate when asked what kind of information the LHIN wanted. Instead, he said he would prefer if such information came from them.

At HHCC’s budget meeting two weeks ago, it had become clear that a balanced budget hinged on a plan to transfer 22 of the Shelburne long-term complex care’s beds to Orangeville. It also became clear that the General Medical Staff, internists and Emergency Room staff, among others, were opposed. But the consensus of the Board, and its almost unanimous vote in favour, suggested there was no alternative if the budget were to be balanced.

At the LHIN, CEO Mimi Lowi-Young said Tuesday her Board, which is generally the funding agency and overseer of health-care services, has not only to see that budgets are balanced but is also concerned with the process.

Part of that process is “community engagement, both internal and external,” she said. And LHIN does not want to see a reduction in programs. Whether to move programs from one location to another or not would be “an internal decision,” one for the hospital Board.

But “we have to look at what they’re proposing” including what improvements need to be made at HHCC to accommodate the program.

Ms. Lowi-Young said the final decision would be “soon,” perhaps even as early as this week – maybe even at a meeting last night.

So the reprieve might be short lived.