An urgent care clinic is set to open at the site of a closed emergency room in Minden, though for just a few hours a week at first.

Haliburton Highlands Health Services closed the ER at its Minden hospital site as of June 1 due to staff shortages and transferred all emergency services to its Haliburton site, about 25 kilometres away.

Despite a large outcry from residents and calls for Health Minister Sylvia Jones to step in and impose a one-year moratorium on the closure, she declined, saying it was a local decision.

Instead, she announced Tuesday that the province will provide funding to the Kawartha North Family Health Team to open an urgent care clinic there.

“We recognize the need for all Ontarians to have access to convenient care, closer to home, no matter where they live in the province,” Jones wrote in a statement.

The province is giving the health team about $62,000 in one-time funding to purchase equipment and get the clinic up and running, then will deliver operating funding of almost $600,000 per year, a spokesperson for Jones said.

The Minden urgent care clinic will be able to treat patients with “unexpected but non-life-threatening” conditions through walk-ins and booked appointments.

It is set to start by operating 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the Canada Day long weekend, then open on weekends “until fully staffed,” the government said.

The Opposition NDP said weekend-only care is not a sufficient replacement for an ER.

“Adding nurse practitioners in Minden is a step in the right direction, but it certainly doesn’t replace the big blue ‘H’ that came down three weeks ago; the big blue ‘H’ that represents 24/7 emergency care, lifesaving care,” health critic France Gelinas wrote in a statement.

“It is frustrating that the minister of health either fails or refuses to understand these realities.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2023.