Bluewater Health, Middlesex Hospital Alliance partner for urology services

Adding urology patients from Newbury and Strathroy isn’t expected to impact waits at Sarnia’s hospital.

“We don’t foresee” any impact on wait times, said Bluewater Health chief of staff Dr. Michel Haddad.

Bluewater Health and the Middlesex Hospital Alliance recently announced a partnership where Middlesex patients will go to Sarnia for care.

That’s after the only urologist in the alliance, that includes Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital and Four Counties Health Services in Newbury, retired in June, said hospital alliance president and chief executive Julie McBrien.

“In these challenging times of health human resources. . . we knew we probably were not going to be able to successfully recruit a replacement urologist,” she said.

Nearby Bluewater Health has three, she said.

Emergency staff at MHA hospitals can call on Bluewater Health’s urologists for urgent care, and Strathroy and Newbury-area family doctors can also refer patients to Sarnia as part of the pilot project that started in July, McBrien said.

Patients will travel to Sarnia, instead of doctors coming to Middlesex, she said.

“It may mean a little more travel from some patients that maybe have an urgent need, but I think the key is that we’re getting them access to care,” she said, noting urology demand for the recently retired MHA specialist was maybe one urgent call per week, along with less urgent cases.

“I personally think community hospitals need to be collaborating more together. We’re close to London Health Sciences Centre, but they have their own pressures and they take care of more sick patients.

“So we definitely want to make sure they have the access they need for those sicker patients and that community hospitals are partnering together where possible to meet the everyday needs of (patients).”

Bluewater Health had a similar partnership with Chatham-Kent Health Alliance for urology care before the Chatham-Kent hospital group reintroduced its own urology services in 2021Haddad said.

Forming the MHA partnership, for Bluewater Health, is about partner hospitals in the region working together where needed, he said.

“It’s part of that whole strategy of let’s help each other.”

Plans are to check in after 12 months on how well the partnership is working in terms of patient satisfaction, for the urologists, and whether wait times are significantly affected, Haddad and McBrien said.

“It shouldn’t,” Haddad said, calling the partnership “a good thing for Strathroy and for Sarnia.”

Other partnerships are also being eyed, but nothing is firm yet, Haddad said.

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