There are concerns about significant changes to the services available at Muskoka’s two hospitals but according to the head of Muskoka Algonquin Health Care (MAHC), nothing is set in stone.
Cheryl Harrison, the president and CEO of MAHC, recently confirmed that MAHC has held several confidential meetings with various user groups, including service providers and clinicians, to discuss the service delivery model at Muskoka’s two hospital sites.
Some local physicians have expressed concerns that potential service changes could include anything from removing the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Bracebridge location to single-siting inpatient services and inpatient surgery.
Harrison said she is aware rumors are circulating in the community, but nothing has been decided yet and it’s too early in the process to discuss specifics.
“I can’t say any of these things are not going to happen but…I’m not going to comment right now on whether service levels will change,” she said. “This is a confidential process…and we need to respect the integrity of that process. We’re having a discussion about what we need to look at and what we need to tweak.”
Harrison said MAHC is currently in the process of meeting with six sets of user groups consisting of more than 250 participants. Once the input from those groups has been compiled and examined, Harrison says they plan to return with more concrete plans at some point in January, 2024.
The public will also be allowed to preview any changes and provide their input. While MAHC will consider the input of the user groups and the public, Harrison said the final decision is up to the MAHC board of directors.
“This is not an approval process but we do want to mitigate any concerns,” she says. “I can’t thank enough the people who have taken part so far. They’ve helped us to look at things differently. It’s a process and we’re still in the process and we continue to evolve the process.”
The news follows MAHC’s announcement on Dec. 21 that they have selected Pine Street as the future location of a new hospital in Bracebridge. Along with a new hospital to be built in Huntsville, the total cost of the two redevelopment projects is currently pegged at nearly $1 billion. The local share is expected to cost $225 million. The local share plan is one of the significant components Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare must complete for the Ministry of Health’s Stage 1.3 capital redevelopment submission, aimed for early 2024.
“It’s a lot of money and..we need to ensure that we have a system that is affordable and sustainable well into the future.”
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Thirty-five percent of the inpatient days over the last 5 years have been in South Muskoka. In my opinionThe Ministry has either been lied to already about those numbers, or the Ministry hasn’t checked them. And I believe that the Huntsville Board of Directors will need to get past the public before they do what they did to Burk’s Falls. What we need in South Muskoka is our own Board, and our own organization. I told them Huntsville would cook this up in 2005. before Amalgamation. It was a slow cooker, but here we are.
Lets get organized. Call every councillor, and Mayors of Muskoka Lakes, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge both Town and District. Call Graydon Smith. Call the Minister of Health. Let’s make a petition. We need to act now. The bulk of Board members are from Huntsville. The CEO and Chief of Staff are from Orillia and I think our District Chair has his Muskoka home in Huntsville.
Dan Waters.
Might I suggest a little reading: a “Blast from the Past.” This is a 2018 commentary By Sven Miglin who was a Hospital Board member and Chairman for over 6 years. It gives some insight as to what decisions were made regarding the Two Acute Site Model back then but more importantly, what will happen over the years regarding said decisions. We were told 15 to 20 years before the shovels hit the ground. Much has changed and will change before then.
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/sven-miglin-former-mahc-board-chair-weighs-in-on-task-force-recommendation/
The one hospital, two hospital question was valid. However there were unknown factors at the time. The population explosion and 1000s of newcomers. The money it has taken to take care of that.
There is no way today is like yesterday.
Care of the patients has gone down the tube.
The world is in a sick state not just Muskoka.
Bob Slater: doesn’t it just suck when you told them so? Even when you did and you got blown off like lint. I think many people questioned one local platform in the last election. That without a PC win we would not be getting two “full service” hospitals. They got everybody who was anybody in Huntsville (and had a PC leaning) to swear that we would surely be eliminating any possibility of said hospitals. Unless their candidate won.
Well how likely does it seem that those hospitals are in the near (how near?) or distant future? At a projected cost of about 500 million each back then, what kind of price tag would be attached now? And if the buildings are delivered, I believe we the local tax payer, will still be liable to pay for things like beds, sheets, stethoscopes, and all the paraphernalia that goes between the walls of a “full service” hospital. Huntsville’s projected tax increase of 10 or 15 percent looks pretty tame in the face of what could come.
Now we get to include the problem of getting the doctors and nurses and cleaners and all the other people that do the jobs that need to be done inside those new walls. And much the same bureaucracy is in charge now as was in charge before it all went south. It seems that bureaucracy grows every week, and there’s no suggestion that anyone in that group wants to check for a pulse and see if the heart is still beating. Or can be kept beating. Or, whether all this building is the way to go.
I know that the situation has not been created locally. The province and the country and the world seems to be convulsing with shortages, escalating costs and change. But to blindly plunge ahead here in Muskoka, because it’s the thing to do (?), seems very unenlightened.
I’m pretty sure lots of people in the district would be just as happy to spend part of a day locally when needing a hospital, rather than the travel times mentioned in other Doppler comments. Just refurbish what we have. Return our hospitals to fully functioning hospitals. To do that we need the trained people. How many trained people could be hired for 250 million?
I think we’re further ahead to hire the staff for the buildings we have rather than create fine buildings to be filled with paper pushers and bureaucrats. Like the ones who got us to where we presently are. Wouldn’t the community rather have the doctors, nurses and other necessary bodies to work inside the walls we have now.
Just an opinion.
Huntsville hospital is constantly going under modifications to accommodate new equipment that it has been receiving. When the hospital was built, it was structured to have another floor added on. Why isn’t anyone discussing this?
Perhaps if they didn’t fire the workers they had due to mandates? How about dropping it like most places have?
Not much help having a new hospital without any staff. Perhaps some affordable housing would be a great start?
There is no empathy..compassion or respect left for a patient in the present health care system.
I agree with all five of the previous comments. In particular, I agree with you, Margaret. If we, as the local citizenry, are expected to dig deep (to the tune of something like 1/4 of a billion dollars) to fund this new initiative, shouldn’t we have some say in the decisions? I would suggest to the powers that be, they will need good luck on getting the necessary extra funding, if concrete proposals are not placed before the citizenry for their approval.
It does sort of seem like we are going backward in medical treatment. This is probably not actually true as there are many diagnostics and treatments available now that did not exist in the 50’s and 60’s but I remember that in those days as a young guy, there was almost no year where I did not end up with a cast on at least one part of my body. These were all done right here in Huntsville. If I’d had to have traveled to Orillia to get these done it would have been a very big issue.
It is hard to believe that this is now the case.
The public can give input but the board of directors make the final decision? The taxpayers fund the healthcare system. This should be open to the public not decided by a board of directors that are not accountable for their decisions.
Hate to say it! But … I tried to tell people who had decision power this would happen with 2 hospitals 20 miles apart! One hospital was the answer! But no ..the decisions were made on feeling and emotions! NOW look at the mess you you have if one of your loved ones get real sick and needs immediate attention? Which hospital do you go to? Or do you STILL need to go down south to Orilla, RVH or worse south of highway 7? Or ..while all the ‘service’ delivery issues are worked out .. your love one dies! The boat has sailed! IMO . are we really any better off with these 2 new hospitals? .. and .. apparently NO new services? Heads should roll!
It is a sad state of affairs we are heading in to, all the money that is going to be spent on new hospitals and we are going backwards in healthcare?? My wife recently broke her arm to my shock you can not get a cast put on in Huntsville? We are 4 trips so far to Orillia and many more going forward. My question is how does a young family or others with no vehicle or the resources ie. Money handle this situation, fortunately my wife and i have the resources but many in this community do not. ours is just one story as was the previous letter how many more are there?
And remember Toronto is just a two hour drive south.
I have been to every hospital in Toronto, with family members,
and it’s always turned to be a 12 hour day. including 7-8 hours travelling time.
Seniors, people with children etc. require the services right here in Bracebridge and Huntsville.
There are horror stories out there about health care and will it only get worse? I pray not!