A second thought has been given to close eight leased satellite offices in the Southeast Health Region, including a few locally.
The Southeast Health Board of Directors passed a motion on Wednesday to have Medical Officer of Health Doctor Piotr Oglaza reconsider shuttering offices in Trenton, Picton, and Napanee, among others.
This includes having a report come to the December 17 Board meeting outlining the criteria that was used to make this decision.
The original decision was made in careful consideration of financial realities, service utilization patterns, and opportunities to modernize service delivery across the Southeast Region.
Other offices on the bubble include Almonte, Gananoque, Kemptville, and Perth.
Also at SEPH’s meeting, a decision on the sale of the Cloyne property was deferred.
Oglaza outlined the configuration of the Cloyne office, formerly a residential home, has no public health clinics delivered from the site and the closure will not affect public health operations or the delivery of programs and services in the area.
SEPH has developed strong relationships in the Cloyne community to assist in offering our programs and services, and currently offers public health programs and services in various partner locations, at events, and in client homes.
Meanwhile, a progress update on merger activities was provided to the Board.
The activities include, but are not limited to:
- Transition of staff into their new teams supported by a plan to prepare for and assist with the change.
- Work on the development of a fully-functional SEPH website that will have more harmonized program/service content and functionality.
- Harmonization of 14 medical directives (the formal documents that outline specific tasks, procedures and clinical activities that health-care professionals are authorized to perform without the need for direct physician assessment at the time of implementation).
- Completion of the third quarter change readiness assessment, which saw a staff participation rate increase of over 10 percent. The results will be used to identify actions that can be taken by leadership to address challenges identified by staff.
- Harmonization of the payroll schedule with transition planned for February 2026.
- Establishment of a policy review process resulting in the harmonization of over 25 policies.
- An inaugural All Staff Day to build relationships within the new teams and recognize long-serving staff.
