Oscar Wilde’s character Lady Bracknell says in The Importance of Being Earnest: “to lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune … to lose both seems like carelessness.” Does the same apply to psychiatrists?
Kitchener-area residents in need of outpatient psychiatric support for their children may very well be quoting Wilde these days.
The Grand River Hospital has lost not one, not two, but four psychiatrists recently, requiring the hospital to restrict outpatient psychiatric care for children and adolescents to the most acute cases. It has also lost two clinical managers according to an on-line source in the community.
Usually when an exodus like this takes place, you need not look much further than management of the facility for the reasons why, but Grand River claims the docs are leaving for personal reasons.
A spokesperson for the hospital said one is leaving to be closer to family, another for professional opportunities, and a third is expanding a community practice. In all, Grand River has 16 psychiatrists on staff (not all full-time), some of which are being required to “switch over” to the children’s unit.
OPSEU Diablogue 