By Chad Ingram

Dec. 6 2016

The following are brief reports of items discussed during a Dec. 1 meeting of the Haliburton Highlands Health Services board.

HHHS has received two expressions of interest from physicians who may potentially come to work in the community.

“We’ve been looking to recruit physicians to the Haliburton site” HHHS CEO Carolyn Plummer told board members.

HHHS is facing a shortage of doctors at its Haliburton emergency room and the corporation is attempting recruitment directly rather than through the family health team or the county’s medical professional recruitment committee.

Health hub

HHHS CEO Carolyn Plummer has met with counterparts from four other hospitals that along with HHHS have been chosen as rural health hub pilot projects.

“Similar to HHHS each site has already done some integration with other service providers in their communities” Plummer said.

In Haliburton County the former Community Care SIRCH hospice and day programming offered by the Victoria Order of Nurses were brought under the umbrella of HHHS’s Community Support Services.

The idea with the rural health hubs is to bring every aspect of health care from public health to palliative care together under one organization.

Haliburton along with the communities of Espanola Dryden Manitouwadge and Blind River will receive $2.5 million in funding over three years.

New LHIN chair

The new chairman of the Central East Local Health Integration Network – of which Haliburton County is a part – is Louis F. O’Brien. O’Brien formerly sat on the board of directors for the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

“I think he’s going to be a great addition to our LHIN and a great leader for the board” said Plummer.