As fears continue to mount over the future of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, medical staff are voicing their own concerns.
This week the board for Hamilton Health Sciences announced some services, including surgical and obstetrics, would need to move out of the Grimsby hospital until renovations could be completed.
Dr. Jen Rycroft says medical staff worry that what is being described as a 'temporary move' will become permanent.
"I think we should be very worried, I think this is a serious threat, and I do think if we lose these services it will be a fatal blow to the hospital."
Rycroft tells CKTB the medical staff at the hospital believe the facilities are safe, appropriate, and reasonable for those services.
"We recently passed, just in the past few years, our last round of accreditation in our hospital."
Rycroft also explains some of the confusion surrounding the decision.
"What they're saying is a two year program to move things out - they have no funding approved for this, and they have no start date approved. So although they say they want to move it out in January, we don't actually have any timeline."
Dr. Wes Stephens the COO for Hamilton Health Sciences tells CKTB the move is temporary and reassures the community there are no plans to close emergency services or the hospital in general.
"This is really about proactively maintaining the facility to continue to do contemporary work. So I share the concern of the community. Any discussion of any moving of services even temporarily is disconcerting to the population. We are still committed to redevelopment of the hospital."
Rycroft has organized a community meeting for tonight at the Trinity United Church in Grimsby beginning at 7:30 p.m.