A decreased funding sum has been provided to Hastings County for a regular offload nurse at Belleville and Trenton Hospitals.
Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Chief Carl Bowker told Hastings County Council on Thursday they’ve received $341,340 for a dedicated nurse at Belleville General Hospital 12 hours a day, seven days a week and Trenton Memorial Hospital eight hours a day, seven days per week.
That’s down a little more than $48,000 from the previous fiscal year and Bowker noted this will impact offload services at TMH.
He noted they would have to be discontinued for a nearly four-month period starting Dec. 7 until March 31, 2026 in order to align with available funds.
A temporary measure to have Quinte Health bridge the gap and maintain offload services at their expense will be employed, but Bowker said this won’t be sustainable.
He anticipates further decreases to these services in the 2026-27 fiscal year will be likely if the funding request remains below asking.
Previously, Hastings County had consistently received $232,140 in support of an offload position at Belleville General until the program expanded in 2023/24 and our application to support an additional offload position at Trenton Memorial was successful.
