Listen Up! – Why does the Hospital Board seem to be working against us, instead of with us?

Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler

It has been a long time since we have heard much about the hospital issue in Muskoka but there has been a lot going on behind the scenes and things are heating up. You will recall that last year, Muskoka Algonquin Health Care (MAHC) tabled a recommendation to build a single hospital in the Port Sydney area to replace the hospitals in both Huntsville and Bracebridge. This move came after months of public angst and opposition to losing acute care hospitals in both communities.

The recommendation from MAHC went to the Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN) headquartered in Orillia, whose responsibility it is to make a final recommendation to the Ministry of Health on future hospital care in Muskoka. MAHC may have believed that this was ‘Mission Accomplished’ but Muskoka mayors, especially the mayors of Bracebridge and Huntsville thought differently and attended a Board meeting of the LHIN to express their strong objection to the MAHC proposal and to make their case for maintaining two hospitals in Muskoka. It was refreshing to see that the LHIN listened. They expressed the opinion that the communities in Muskoka should be on board with any recommendation that was made to the Province and therefore initiated a ‘mediation’ process, in an effort to bring Muskoka communities and the Hospital Board together. In spite of the efforts of the LHIN, so far it has not been successful.

There have been five or six mediation meetings since October, the latest, this past Tuesday. The meetings have been ably chaired by Bob Morton who is also Chair of the LHIN. As well, presentations and discussions from area municipalities, the District and others have outlined problems and realities related to the MAHC proposal, as well as alternatives to be considered. The problem is that MAHC is not interested in alternatives. It has not moved a single inch.

One observer at Tuesday’s meeting believed that the attitude of the MAHC representatives was arrogant and egotistical……almost like, how dare you question our work. It seemed as if they thought the mediation process was for them to explain the wisdom of their single-site proposal and that then, everyone would simply cave and go along with it. There was no move to find a middle ground, just an apparent attitude of ‘our way or the highway’. Consequently, there was no consensus and no real movement to find a solution, at least to date, in spite of the efforts of the LHIN. It’s hardly been an effective mediation process.

Last Fall, Huntsville Council appointed a local group of highly qualified individuals known then, as the Huntsville Hospital Retention Working Group. Their mandate was (and I believe still is) to protect the interests of Huntsville in responding to hospital and health care issues in our community. Funds for a consultant to help them in this regard were also provided. Since then, it appears that the committee has morphed somewhat by working with Bracebridge, in an effort to find a common solution acceptable to both communities.

The Retention Committee appeared before Huntsville Council some weeks ago to give a progress report. At that time, they made three main observations. First, that the funding formula for hospitals in Muskoka is flawed. Second, that a single-site model for hospital care in Muskoka is extremely expensive and it is unlikely that it would be approved for a municipality as small as Muskoka. Lastly they suggested that a model that developed campuses of care in Bracebridge and Huntsville, should be considered.

This coming Monday the Retention Committee will be making a further presentation, this time to a joint meeting of the Huntsville and Bracebridge Councils at the Algonquin Theatre at 7:00 PM. It is interesting to note that at the LHIN meeting on Tuesday, MAHC officials asked that this meeting be held behind closed doors. Municipal representatives quite correctly said no. The public has every right to be involved in this process and hopefully, people will care enough about health issues in our communities to turn out on Monday night. MAHC also asked for equal time at the joint Council meeting and it was pointed out that Town officials had not been invited to participate in MAHC deliberations and that this meeting was an opportunity to hear from their own Committee.

And so, the beat goes on and the drums are getting louder. It will be interesting to see what further proposals the Retention Committee brings to the table this Monday evening. The concept of campuses of care is an interesting one but more details on how this would come about will be important. While it is laudable that both Bracebridge and Huntsville continue to work closely together it is also important to ensure that any solution provides equality of service to each community and their extended catchment areas and that one campus does not become subordinate to the other. That is the way this whole community debate started and that is the way it should end.