Hospital closes foot clinic

NewsBot · Mar 28, 2006

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The Banner are reporting:
Hospital closes foot clinic
Decision to close clinic driven by policy, funds

Foot care (chiropody) services are no longer available through Headwaters Health Care Centre. The clinic ceased operations this month and the closure means patients of the clinic will have to seek chiropody services from private practitioners in the community. It also means those patients will now pay expenses out-of-pocket.

Headwaters president and CEO Bob Baynham says the reason for the closure is both financially and policy driven.

He explains there is greater expectations on hospitals to focus on their role to provide acute care services -- and that services that could be accessed through the community should be. However, funding is a big factor in the decision, says Baynham.

"The government is trying to contrain the hospital budget and keep a lid on expenditures," he says.

"We only got a three per cent increase in our base budget, and next year it will be less (2.8 per cent)."

Operating costs for the hospital are increasing by more than three per cent annually, he adds.

He notes that most hospitals across the province have already shifted chiropody services to the community.

The clinic served roughly 85 regular patients annually and operated for just under $100,000 annually.

It was a service at Headwaters for about 15 years, notes Baynham.

Whether chirpody services is something LHINs (Local Health Integration Networks) will consider is uncertain, he adds.

"It's one of the health care services that a LHIN might think about," says Baynham, "but I doubt it is high on their priority list."

LHINs are designed to improve efficiency of patient referrals -- to hospitals, health clinics, community care access centres (CCAC), etc. There are 14 in Ontario.

Orangeville resident John Tamming says he is concerned with the cut to local health care services. He says although he doesn't use the chiropody services, he doesn't think its right that seniors may have to pay out of pocket.

"Many of our citizens ... will no longer be able to make use of this important medical service," he says in a letter to The Banner.

The chiropodist formerly operating out of the hospital will open a private practice April 1.
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