Listen Up! Happy to wish 2016 out the door – Opinion

Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler

Counting Our Blessings

Christmas is a great time to count our blessings. I will admit that it is a little more difficult for me to do this year, as 2016 was far from one of my favourites and not made easier by the tabloid tactics of the Huntsville Forester. However, we have come through it and that in itself is a blessing to be thankful for; 2017 can only be better!

There have been many other blessings as well, even if you have to find them the hard way, as we did recently. About a week ago, my wife Anne slipped on ice outside a Huntsville store. She went down hard and sustained three fractures of her pelvis. It was pretty scary at the time.

The blessing of course is our hospital. This incident brought home to me once again how important it is to fight for an active campus of care in Huntsville and not just an emergency department as some seem willing to settle for. Without the diagnostic tools, such as a CT scan, that only active hospitals have, my wife would have been shipped out. Instead, she received exceptional care from doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and technicians, many of whom would not be here if Huntsville only had an emergency department. These people are here because of the facility we have. They will not be here if we lose it. Simple as that.

While the professional care Anne received, on all levels, was exceptional, caring and thorough, there were some signs that the building itself is not being kept up, almost as if the writing is on the wall and there is no point. Stained blinds in patients’ rooms, chipped paint here and there, worn linoleum and so on.

While it is wonderful news that funding may be in place for a new Fairvern Nursing Home on the Huntsville Hospital campus, one cannot forget the recommendation that is still on the table for two campuses of care in Muskoka: Site A to be fully active care and Site B to be ambulatory and long term care. What a shame it would be if Site B was a fait accompli for Huntsville.

Another experience we had, as a result of Anne’s fall, relates to aftercare and, so far, it has not been nearly as effective. After three days in hospital, when Anne was released she was told that she would be contacted the next day by the Community Care Access Centre which supplies in-home support for people who are recovering from accidents or illness. The call didn’t come then and when it did, it came from Barrie or somewhere else in the south. In fact, the person who called a Huntsville number had to confirm that Anne lived in Muskoka. She then said that they would be unable to conduct an assessment of her needs until after Christmas. Because we have a very supportive family, that is not a big issue for us, but there are others who would not have that support and would be waiting on the convenience of an out-of-town agency to get the support they need.

The dichotomy between the excellent care Anne received in her own community and what she received from away has driven home to me the blessing that we have in our Huntsville hospital. It is a blessing we should not take for granted. It is a blessing we should demand that our municipal leaders fight for. To settle merely for an emergency department would simply result in abject failure to the people of North Muskoka.

On this Christmas Day, let me also speak briefly of another blessing and that is the manner in which Doppler, over the past year, has been accepted as the primary online news source in our community. Our Doppler team is excited and gratified by the support of our readers and advertisers. We will continue to strive for excellence in digging deeper and providing comprehensive, up-to-date local news to the residents of North Muskoka. On behalf of all of us at Doppler, I wish you a happy and blessed Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year!

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