No closures planned for health unit offices

The bad news for the regional health unit is that it is a victim of provincial spending restraint measures. The good news is that staff are working on a plan to guarantee that the doors stay open at local district health offices and that all current public health services remain available as usual.

“We aren’t closing, we aren’t leaving,” said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, chief medical health officer for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).

Last month the United Counties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) expressed concern about how provincial budgeting plans might be affecting the EOHU’s own operations budget plan.

The province provides the lion’s share of EOHU operating revenue at about $9.4 million this year, with the Five Counties and City of Cornwall providing the remaining quarter of the $12.5 million EOHU budget.

Dr. Roumeliotis confirmed, during a March 6 phone interview, that the provincial funding has been restricted during the past few years, though this year there was a 0.6 per cent increase in the provincial support fund.

He also observed that inflation for most of the EOHU’s operation costs well exceed that minimal increase.

Still, Roumeliotis noted, the 0.6 per cent increase is a result of a recent provincial review that noted that the EOHU is one of the largest health regions in the province, and that it and seven other regional health units are underfunded.

There are 28 other regional health units in Ontario which did not receive any increase at all to their annual funding allocations.

Meanwhile, Roumeliotis and other EOHU staff members are working on reducing some fixed operation costs while both maintaining existing services programs and keeping local district health unit offices open.

“The district offices are important to us,” Dr. Roumeliotis said. “There is no question of closing any of them.”

In-house programs like vaccinations, water quality testing, and other services will continue at district offices. EOHU staff will make greater use of mobile-technology systems, where feasible, for some services that do not require residents to go to the district office.

Dr. Roumeliotis said the overall costeffectiveness plan should be in place by next year.

“The public outside should not be affected at all,” he said. “We are not closing. We’re maintaining our local operations.”