By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Northumberland Hills Hospital has announced Jan. 28 (5 PM) as the date of its third virtual public forum seeking community input into the hospital’s future.
The NHH Master Plan – Growing Care for the Future project has arranged this session as an opportunity for discussion focused on outpatient services, including emergency, cancer care and community mental-health services, among others. It’s one of a series of opportunities – virtual and in-person – that the Master Planning Steering Committee has designed to collect direct and diverse input from the community it serves.
President and Chief Executive Officer Susan Walsh said in the announcement that the previous two public forums concerned current NHH services and projects that are underway (a new MRI, a fourth operating room) as well as inpatient care services, receiving valuable feedback that will help in planning for the future.
“In this third forum, we are asking area residents for input regarding NHH’s outpatient services, including emergency services, ambulatory clinics, cancer care, dialysis, and community mental health and addiction services,” Walsh listed.
“We hope that the community will join us for another fulsome discussion where we will share information and gather feedback on the future needs for these services.”
Population projections for Northumberland County indicate growth of at least 22% over the next 20 years alone – a figure that will undoubtedly increase if projects like the proposed nuclear-generation facility at Wesleyville move forward.
Simultaneously, the community is aging, resulting in more and increasingly complex acute-care needs. More than 75% of the inpatient days at NHH are attributed to patients aged 65 and over. With this age cohort predicted to grow to 34.5% of the population by 2036, local need for health-care services can only rise.
Several major growth projects are already underway at NHH to meet this growth, including the fourth operating room, the replacement of critical diagnostic-imaging equipment and an upgrade to critical supporting services like Pharmacy and Medical Device Reprocessing. But looking ahead, the NHH is on a journey to create a new Master Plan.
Guided by input from staff, physicians, patients, caregivers, volunteers and community partners, an overarching road map for future growth and necessary government approvals is underway, and NHH is grateful for the input received to date.
Master Planning is mandated by Ontario’s Ministry of Health to look at the current state and functionality of services and facilities, as compared to anticipated needs. While a strategic plan guides near-term priorities, a master plan looks much farther into the future to provide a long-term redevelopment road map for future growth over the next 20 to 30 years and beyond.
The NHH Master Plan will:
Build on current strengths
Consider new opportunities and needs identified during visioning sessions and community consultations
Address current and anticipated government direction regarding hospital-service sustainability
Position NHH for the necessary Ministry approval and support to advance future growth
Define NHH’s role as a strong medium-sized hospital within the system
Identify how NHH can be an environmental steward by creating a sustainably accountable organization
Leverage innovation and technology to better enable care for generations to come
Inform NHH’s next strategic plan
It is hoped that everyone with an interest in NHH can become involved.
Between May and October last year, attention focused on internal interest holders. The Master Planning Steering Committee – co-chaired by Walsh and the board chair, with NHH staff, physicians, patients, caregivers and volunteers – has been gathering insights, conducting internal evaluations, participating in focus-group sessions and exploring possibilities. This work has been supported by experts in planning, architecture and health-system data.
For this current phase of consultation, they are looking outside NHH and inviting community partners and members of the public to ask questions, validate the early themes that are emerging and share input into the vision for the future of NHH. This is being done through a mix of one-on-one conversations, special master-planning meetings, generative discussions, public forums and an on-line and in-hospital survey.
Launched last May, the process is anticipated to take about 12 months to complete. It is expected to conclude in May 2026 with a formal submission to the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health regarding the proposed long-term program and facility requirements of NHH.
By co-designing the next Master Plan with all the communities it serves, NHH seeks to produce a plan that will meet the needs of future generations and carry forward the time, effort and investment that those before us put into the hospital we value today.
As to when the needs identified might take shape, this is a complex process with multiple stages of planning and approvals that can take many years. Plans and ideas generated in this stage of the process are conceptual – they will evolve as NHH collaborates with partners and government, and updates will be shared as this work moves forward.
For more information, including a link to register for the Jan. 28 public forum and a chance to take the on-line survey, visit nhh.ca
