The South Bruce Grey Health Centre recently completed its strategic plan, outlining the priorities that will shape health care delivery for the next five years and beyond.
Nancy Shaw, president and CEO, said recruitment efforts for staff have been going well over the last year and that's huge, because prioritizing the well-being of the SBGHC team is a tentpole of the plan.
"We have seen a significant change," she said. "We have had some onboarding, especially at the end of the school year last year with nursing. We continue to recruit staff, that's obviously a primary focus, and when we talk about our people within our strategic priorities: that is how do can we support the people we have and how can we continue to attract people to our organization?"
Shaw said they heard throughout consultation that SBGHC's staff and physicians are its greatest strength. In order to prioritize staff well-being, they're making some changes to how they do scheduling based on that feedback.
"We did hear that many, for example nursing staff, they would like to only work at one site instead of working at two sites. So we've looked at schedules, we've tried to revise them in order to meet what frontline staff would see as improvements to their work life. We're listening, we're acting on the feedback we received and we're trying to support staff," said Shaw.
The strategic plan will also address feedback from the community. Shaw said they heard throughout that access to care closer to home is important. The SBGHC will be looking to expand specialized services in the area, announcing this week that the Durham hospital will offer a cardiology clinic and pediatric mental health services, with a hip and knee replacement clinic coming next year.
"We continue to look at how we can provide specialty services close to home... and the Durham site is a perfect location to provide that, so we're very excited about that," said Shaw.
Thanks to public feedback, the SBGHC also recently expanded diagnostic imaging in Walkerton and Kincardine to after 5 p.m.
On the common question of Chesley's emergency department, Shaw said there's no changes planned at the moment, but they continue to evaluate the limited hours as they move into the future.
There will also be an opportunity for more feedback, as members of the community will have a chance to attend Coffee with the Leadership Team later this month to ask questions about the five-year-plan.
Shaw said the locations aren't set yet, but more details will be announced online soon.
To see the new Strategic Plan, visit SBGHC's website.
