Huntsville Council is expected to delve into the hospital issue some more at its March 29 meeting and revisit a unanimous resolution it passed in conjunction with the Town of Bracebridge at a joint Council meeting held at the Algonquin Theatre on February 1.
The joint resolution was a direct response to the position put forth by the Board of Muskoka Algonquin Health Care, which administers both the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals, calling for the closure of both hospitals in exchange for a brand new centrally located one for the area. Instead, the municipalities came out with a joint resolution which called for maintaining a two-hospital model with emergency rooms at both hospitals, albeit with a different configuration of services offered at each one. The gist of it pointed at one hospital becoming site A and offering the bulk of acute care services and in-patient surgical procedures while the other, Site B, would be more oriented towards the provision of chronic care services.
About 60 medical practitioners join together to make a statement
News of that resolution did not fly with the medical community, especially in northern Muskoka. They expressed concern with the idea of becoming the hospital that would lose its acute care capacity. They maintain there are ways to find greater efficiencies within the funding envelope for health care in the area, without losing vital services at any one hospital. See their statement and letter to the Minister of Health here.
In response to their concerns, also shared by Huntsville’s neighbouring municipalities which depend on the Huntsville hospital, as well as members of the business community here, Huntsville is expected to revisit its stated position.
“It was an unintended consequence of our joint Council meeting where we talked about site A, site B,” said Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison of the response. He also noted that the resolution was “one step in a much longer journey.”
The fact that it has lit a fire under the doctors in Huntsville and North Muskoka is fantastic. It’s the greatest news in all of this process. It’s made MAHC sit up and take notice as well. I didn’t mean to scare them, if that’s what happened. But in some ways I’m glad they were scared because they’ve come to the table. Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison
LHIN task force meeting the best so far, says mayor
Aitchison was at the last Muskoka Health Care Task Force meeting held in Bracebridge to discuss the issue. The task force was initiated by the North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) which distributes provincial health care dollars to the area and advises the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. It set up the task force, comprised of MAHC and municipal representatives, in order to find a consensus in the community on how to address the hospitals’ financial troubles.
Aitchison said the meeting held March 3 was much more congenial in tone.
“Everybody was sort of talking about the same thing finally. MAHC seemed to want to be a partner in finding a broader solution not just to their issues but to look at the whole picture to find a solution to the funding crisis they’re facing,” he said.
Huntsville Council to incorporate input from medical community in their stance
“The next step obviously is that I think Council will probably have some discussion about what happened and probably pass a new resolution more in line with what the doctors have talked about and sort of the broader picture fix.”
Mayor Scott Aitchison. Photo by Kelly Holinshead, The Shutterbug Gallery
He said the resolution will also have to speak to short-term funding issues and the potential for single siting surgeries in Bracebridge. “We need to send a very strong and clear message to the Province that we’re quite simply opposed to that… which again is all part and parcel of what the doctors are talking about. What they said is the Ministry needs to fund our hospital as it is, even though it doesn’t meet the sustainability bench marks in the existing funding formula, for a couple of years while we get this transition done.”
Aitchison said the medical practitioners coming on board to work on a made-in-Muskoka solution to a funding formula that does not work for this area, adds huge credence to the idea that a solution could be piloted here. A solution, he said, that could be applied to other regions in the province facing similar funding issues under Ontario’s current funding formula.
“The Minister has acknowledged to us as well that he knows that the funding formula unfairly penalizes Muskoka Algonquin Health Care. At the time, a year ago, I think it was five other hospitals (that were adversely impacted) and I think it’s more now. So it makes sense in the big cities but it doesn’t make sense in smaller urban communities like Huntsville.”
Click on the links below for related stories.
Councillor Thompson reports on Monday’s meeting with the Health Minister
Losing acute care at Huntsville Hospital would result in hospital’s closure: Perry Council
Mayors get unanimous support from their councils for a two-hospital model
Bottom line is ” The Boomers are coming to town now” .
We obviously are falling behind in the care that we can, or will be able to provide for our senior residents and it seems no one is addressing this issue.
These health care issues should already be in place, period .
Not sure why we keep electing officials that have no idea what is happening out there and trying to balance budgets that should already be in place.
Health care is paramount right now for anywhere in Canada because of our Boomer Population and no government agency will address this problem.
So the bottom line is “Boomers” – Get your duck’s in order , pre-pay your funeral expenses , and if you have to go to the hospital or clinic , pack a good lunch and sleeping bag.
Cheers !
Larry
With Huntsville Hospital and I believe, to a lesser extent Bracebridge Hospital there is an established “campus” of external services, whether it is pharmacies, eye care, physio services, xray or laboratory services, etc. that serve the area doctors or are operated by area doctors in conjunction with the hospital. They don’t require driving more than a few blocks, if that, and from my experience are all in relatively new buildings. None of this would be available with any new hospital for years and patients would have to continue to use these services until they were replaced near the new hospital. Any amount of extra driving very much affects our aging population and becomes a concern with our winter road conditions. The difference in cost between upgrading and a new hospital has been proven to be a comparison between apples and oranges.
Why not retain all services, excluding surgery and acute care, at both existing hospitals? The acute care/ICU beds would readily be absorbed by chronic care and nursing home patients. I admit to not being aware of the public nursing home situation in Bracebridge, but Fairvern needs to be replaced, as a safety concern. Walk-in clinics, distinct from the emergency departments, could be opened every other day at both locations to cover the entire week (weekends/Sundays optional).
A new facility, at an intermediate site, providing surgery and acute care only, could be constructed for a fraction of the cost of a full-service hospital. Yes, each surgeon would be required to drive a short distance to the new facility, but this seems to be a small price to pay for what should be the fairest and most cost-effective solution.
Hi Scott!!! Neighbour on Woodland….where have you gone? We miss you.
In all, we all, from wherever we come, in religious or city of origin, would say……we need a walk-in clinic, year-round, in Huntsville.
We need acute and hospital care in Hunstville, for heaven’s sake.
Bb hospital barely but gratefully saved my life with community-acquired pneumonia, and feral-cat attack erisepalis and sceptic shock within the 3 months after the last of my family’s death….my mother in T.O., my hometown.
I am grateful for the care there. Life-saving.
Now I live 3 doors from your home and cannot find decent medical care in Huntsville….a ghost-town of necessary services. People from everywhere, camps in Algonquin, humans from North Bay, year-round residents, our beautiful human Kim who lost her life a few hours ago on Brunel Rd., the major throughfare to Algonquin, Algonquin…..need I go on….
We are the ones who need healthcare. We are sick and dying in the hopes for basic medical care here in Huntsville….as you know.
Those orange Sunnybrook-bound Trauma helicopters are only the “tip of the berg”.
Been there, done this.
Still waiting for a Dr. on a “Service Ontario” waitlist, after 7 years of being a year-round resident if Muskoka.
Believe me, I could write a book about the joke of OHIP in Northern Ontario.
People are dying and sick here. No available healthcare.
Barrie is closest.
Burks Falls…..Kearney……everyone’s dying to get medical care, especially the disabled and poor.
Huntsville sits on the Highway 11/60 corridor…….why are we even having this conversation???? How can the greatest corridor in Muskoka be in this state?
They are going to build a 400 km trail to Algonquin Park from the Adirondacks….but we can’t upgrade, rebuild or have a decent hospital and year-round medical care in the Centre of Hunstville?????
Please, do your duty, Scott!!!!