SLMHC Proud of Staff, Physician Dedication to Excellence Despite Ongoing Challenges 

SLMHC - Special to The Bulletin

Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) proudly recognizes the dedication and resilience of our staff and physicians. Their ongoing pursuit of excellence in quality of care and service delivery, despite substantial system pressures and challenges, has not gone unnoticed. 
“Despite the pressing systemic challenges that have increased, our commitment to provide the best care for our patients remains strong. We are proud of the physicians, nurses, support staff, and other allied health professionals at our facility, serving the needs of our patients,” says Dean Osmond, SLMHC President and CEO. “Our staff work tirelessly to ensure our patients are cared for. Support staff are essential in making sure our health service providers are providing great patient care.” 
During the span of April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, SLMHC saw a total of 2,391 inpatient admissions; 101,836 outpatient visits; and 21,423 Emergency Department visits. 
On average, admitted patients wait three days for a bed to open up on the SLMHC nursing floor. In February, SLMHC moved beds 191 times on the nursing floor to accommodate patient admissions. Currently we also average five medivacs a week, which requires a nurse escort. 
“We are continuing to have discussions with Ontario Health Northwest, and the Ministries, to stress the importance of providing the additional Long-Term Care beds that were allocated since 2018. Having a large number of Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients in our hospital has impacted our ability to get acute care patients out of our Emergency Department and into a bed. The lack of beds has also impacted our ability to repatriate our patients back from other facilities in a timely manner, such as Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre,” says Osmond. 
Currently there are 21 licensed beds at the William A. George Extended Care Facility. In 2018, the provincial government allocated an additional 76 long-term care beds. The average wait for a long-term care bed at the William A. George Extended Care Facility is approximately 
seven years.