The North Bay Regional Health Centre is relocating six Withdrawal Management services beds to the NBRHC’s Acute Inpatient Psychiatry Unit (AIPU) on College Drive. Communications Specialist Lindsay Smylie says the relocation of beds allows them to improve access and quality of care by moving away from a solely social detox model to a model that includes some medical oversight.
Smylie also added that unfortunately, this move will result in the elimination of the Addiction Worker role, which means early exit and early retirement letters have been sent to affected staff. Until the hospital receives responses to these letters, they won’t know the final impact on total staffing numbers.
The relocation of the beds is part of the latest round of cuts at the NBRHC. It was indicated in March that between 30 and 40 positions would be eliminated to try to find $5 million in savings in order for the hospital to balance its 2017-18 budget.
