A private for-profit physiotherapy company is moving into the Kincardine Hospital, with plans to charge for outpatient services previously covered and still available free in Chesley, Walkerton, and elsewhere.
PT Health will displace the hospitalâs former physiotherapy department in August. Outpatients must pay for their physiotherapy or drive at least 45 minutes to another site of South Bruce Grey Health Centre.
If you are recovering from hip or knee surgery, or are rehabilitating a rotator cuff injury, itâs wrong for the Kincardine hospital to force you to choose between paying out of pocket or driving to Chesley or Walkerton -- the long car trip will reverse any gains made in therapy and may even be impossible in extreme weather.
Without the means to travel, this may leave people without the health care they need.
The physiotherapy department must remain public at all hospital sites in Grey and Bruce Counties.
Equipment donated to Kincardine Hospital by the community must be used for public services.
We call on MPP Carol Mitchell, the Local Health Integration Network, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, and the hospital board of South Grey and Bruce to reverse this decision and keep health care public in Kincardine.