The Ontario Health Coalition, CUPE and NDP Health Critic France Gelinas are hosting a North Bay town hall conference call tonight.

It all involves the residential addictions treatment program.

Changes are being made to the current 29-bed program.

Officials say thousands of residents in North Bay and across Nipissing will be called randomly at 7 pm and asked to join the call.

Last week, hospital officials told BayToday that layoffs were cancelled after the North Bay Regional Health Centre was confirmed as the preferred operator of the Community Withdrawal Management Services and safe beds in North Bay.

The president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions Michael Hurley was glad to hear it.

“The staff have been saved but the patients haven’t been. The people who need these services and need access to residential addiction treatment are not going to have that access after May,” he says.

He says that’s when 16 beds will close.

Hurley says there will be two public events coming up in the effort to keep the beds open.

“We will be inviting people to a couple of events including a rally outside Mr. Fedeli’s office on February 28th and another one on Match 10th at Les Compagnons. We hope to start a good dialogue with people on what they think could be effective, ” Hurley says.

It will house:
– 6 safe beds
– 8 community WMS beds
– 2 transition beds
– Telephone crisis line for addictions and mental health
– Mobile WMS services
– Addictions day/evening treatment program

 

(File photo by station staff)