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YOUR Independent Community Newspaper
Vol. 2 Edition 48
CKHA to farm out urology
By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance will soon be shopping out its urology work. Dr. Valdis Pakulis is retiring at the end of December, while Dr. Charles Williams is set to fade out of the picture sometime next year. “I’m not sure if he’s retiring or going back to Newfoundland,” said Sarah Padfield, CKHA’s chief operating officer. “He said he is going to wind it up sometime in 2015.” The pending retirement of the alliance’s only urologists leaves Padfield and the rest of administration with some difficult decisions. One option is to try to recruit replacements, but it is likely the alliance is going a different route. “One of the things with the change in health care is we can’t be everything for everyone,” she said. “We have to look at how to create a program that enhances services rather than necessarily replace staff.” To that extent, Padfield
said the CKHA is working on developing a regional model that supports Chatham-Kent with a group of Sarnia-Lambton urologists. “It’s one those situations where we ask, ‘Do we invest in orthopedics, which we have in the past number of years, or do we invest in this?’ Our volumes are low,” she said of urology usage locally. “The big thing is to make sure the emergency department has urology support. Sarnia’s urology department will cover this.” She said details are being finalized on how it will work. “Three urologists do a great job up there. We just don’t have the resources or the volume to support that type of service,” she said. “We’re working on having them cover emergency calls. They’ll likely come and do some clinics here, provide access to services and do some video conferencing.” That will likely mean urgent-needs patients will face trips to Sarnia-Lambton. Continued on page 3
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Bruce Corcoran/The Chatham Voice
CKXS’s Jay Smith shoots the breeze with a group of Chatham ‘Y’ Pool Sharks Saturday morning prior to he and other members of the media, as well as several municipal officials and councillors hitting the pool to see who was faster. For the most part, the kids kicked butt.
Few faster than a 3rd grader Pool Sharks showcase their speed in friendly challenge
The Chatham Voice
Several members of the media, councillors, municipal officials and others on Saturday took up the gauntlet thrown down recently by the Chatham
Pool Sharks. They addressed the question, “Are you faster than a third grader?” For the most part, the answer was a resounding, “No!” But several participants, who raced young Pool
Sharks, did manage to hit the wall first. Jeff Wright and Don Shropshire were particularly quick in the water. For others, just finishing was what mattered. The friendly challenge was part of RBC Sports
Day across Canada. The swim team also received a grant from RBC’s Learn to Play program. For more photos and a video, visit chathamvoice. com.
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