By Sean McIntosh [1]
BELLEVILLE – Cafeterias in Quinte Health Care [2] hospitals will be closing next year.
Cafeterias in Trenton Memorial Hospital [3] and Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital [4] will see a complete closure, although cafes run by the hospitals’ auxiliaries will continue to be open. Belleville Memorial Hospital’s [5] cafeteria will be replaced with a small Tim Hortons [6] that will have pastries and coffee. Other types of food, such as fruit, will still be available.
The closures come after QHC decided to move forward with the plan to reduce its budget [7] by $11.5 million in late November.
QHC has been losing $120,000 annually due to the cafeterias, according to director of communications Susan Rowe.
“We did need to make the change,” she said.
QNet News visited the BGH cafeteria Thursday to see what patrons had to say about the announcement.
A student nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity said there are worse things than cafeterias being replaced.
“I’d rather see a Tim Hortons in here than (see) more nurses walk out the door,” she said.
Having a Tim Hortons at the hospital is a positive move, but the food options may be limited, she added.
“I hope that they still have some of the homemade stuff that they make because it’s kind of nice to get those options.”
Mike Vos, whose brother was a patient at BGH, said it’s a shame that options at the local hospitals are getting limited. People don’t have the time to always bring lunches, he said:
http://www.qnetnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/vos.mp3 [8]
It should be a full-sized Tim Hortons to be effective, he said.
“They can’t have just the express ones that they have, that just have the coffee and muffins and stuff like that. These people have to eat, so they have to have the full services.”
The cafeterias are expected to be closed sometime in March. Rowe said that no jobs will be lost as a result.