E-mail messages claiming the future of Lady Minto Hospital was in jeopardy and urging community opposition to such plans spread like wildfire throughout Salt Spring all day Monday and Tuesday morning, but their contents proved largely untrue.

The messages, with subject lines of “Emergency Meeting Re: Future of Hospital” or “Hospital in Jeopardy,” spread through numerous group and personal e-mail lists, with a few subsequent corrections clarifying the situation on Tuesday.

“I have received information this weekend that the future of Lady Minto is in jeopardy,” stated one message. “I have recently heard several rumours that VIHA wants to close the hospital.”

“This is absolutely nuts,” said Dr. Shane Barclay, Lady Minto Hospital’s chief of staff, in response to the virulent rumours Tuesday morning.

Barclay issued a memo early Tuesday, which then doused the rumour inferno as it splashed its way back through e-mail channels.

“Contrary to the obvious rumour mill on Salt Spring, VIHA is NOT intending on closing any aspect of Lady Minto Hospital. In addition, I met with [VIHA president/CEO] Mr. Howard Waldner and [chief medical officer/executive vice-president] Dr. Owen Heisler last week and they are completely committed to continuing surgical services as well.”

A verbal report given to the Driftwood on Monday by an individual who did not want to be named indicated that Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) staff were supposedly coming to Lady Minto Hospital on Tuesday to discuss closure of the acute care wing with staff, necessitated by a nursing shortage at the hospital.

A meeting between VIHA executives and hospital staff was indeed scheduled, said Barclay, but its purpose was to “again clarify we are moving forward with surgical services.”

VIHA spokseperson Shannon Marshall was both confused and alarmed when confronted with the rumours on Monday, which first involved only the acute care wing.

“There are absolutely no discussions about the closure of acute care,” she insisted after consulting with key VIHA personnel.

The scheduled VIHA-hospital staff meeting was apparently interpreted by someone to have more dramatic implications.

“Some people get very emotional and excited and stories grow,” said islander Irene Wright, an e-mail recipient and disseminator the Driftwood asked to investigate the situation because of her close involvement in island politics.

What is true is that a public meeting has been set for Thursday, Nov. 27 at 12:30 p.m. at Central Hall to update the community about the hospital’s operating room, which remains closed because a surgeon has not yet been hired. (See separate story above.)

According to Wright, the meeting is sponsored by the B.C. Nurses Union, and not the Health Employees’ Union, as stated in some e-mails.

She also clarified that it “is not a protest, but an information meeting to which the public is invited to listen and show their support. It is not clear whether there will be an opportunity for questions . . . . The primary issue is the operating room — what is to become of it. So please come, but save the placards and shouting for some other time.”