Southeast Public Health has rescinded its decision to close several rural public health offices. The decision came after considerable public uproar from affected communities.
In November 2025, SEPH announced satellite offices in Almonte, Gananoque, Kemptville, Napanee, Perth, Picton, and Trenton would close March 1, 2026. All eight offices are within 50 kilometres of Kingston, Belleville, Brockville, or Smiths Falls.
Currently, the SEPH office in Napanee offers a range of services, including maternal/child health programs, vaccinations, dental support, food safety info, sexual health clinics, and addiction/smoking cessation support.
The announcement of closures came just shy of one year after the merger of several health units to create SEPH. On Jan. 1, 2025, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health merged.
As SEPH Board Member and Deputy Warden of L&A County, Nathan Townend, put it, “most people are nervous about mergers.”
But, he added, part of the essential mandate of the merger was to improve service delivery in affected areas.
“The provincial government allocated funding for public health mergers as part of strengthening public health legislation,” said Townend. “The intent was not to cut services.”
Speaking of strengthening public health services, Townend noted SEPH is focused on improving services for rural areas.
“What SEPH is trying to do through their rural strategy is think innovatively and creatively about how to improve the delivery of public health services in rural areas,” he explained.
Townend described the closures being announced before SEPH had unveiled its rural strategy as “putting the cart before the horse.”
Long-term, closures are still expected, but not before public buy-in on the rural strategy and how it could represent an expansion, rather than a cull, of services.
Providing an example of how an expansion of rural health services might play out, Townend described services being delivered “to people’s homes” as opposed to a “bricks and mortar office”.
When asked when the pause on closures may be lifted, Townend reiterated that the SEPH Board has taken closures off the table until local communities have been engaged and can provide feedback.
“The SEPH Board was intentionally vague about the timeline for closures because the whole point was to meaningfully engage on a case-by-case basis with the local communities that are affected,” said Townend.
For more information about SEPH, please visit: https://www.southeastph.ca/.