'No chance' ALC beds will remain open, Bartolucci says

Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci said there's “no chance” the province will provide funding to keep open 30 beds scheduled to close at the former Memorial Hospital site next month.

About a dozen members of CUPE Local 1623 and their supporters protested the bed closures outside of Bartolucci's office Feb. 11.

The alternate level of care (ALC) unit at the former Memorial site currently contains 60 beds. Half are due to close March 31, with the patients occupying these beds in the process of being transferred to long-term care facilities. The rest of the beds are due to close a year later.

Because of the bed closures, Health Sciences North is due to hand out layoff notices to 62 people who work in the unit. Most of these workers belong to CUPE Local 1623.

“This is no surprise to CUPE or anybody else,” Bartolucci said. “This has been posted for almost a year.”

Bartolucci said Health Sciences North, the North East Local Health Integration Network (North East LHIN) and the Sudbury ALC Steering Committee all agree that the beds should close, and the community should move forward with alternate solutions, including enhanced home care.

All of these agencies feel that those in the ALC unit will be well served in the long-term care facilities they're being transferred to, so Bartolucci said he's also confident of this.

CUPE Local 1623 president Dave Shelefontiuk said he's been trying to set up a meeting with Bartolucci about the subject, with no success.

The MPP said he'd meet with Shelefontiuk if there's “a constructive reason” to do so.

“I will probably tell him he should be working with the LHINs and the hospital and with the community steering group,” he said. “If (the meeting is) simply to say they want (the ALC beds to stay) open, the decision to close has been made.”

Posted by Arron Pickard