Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison said that while he understands the immense pressure the administration and the board of Muskoka’s two hospitals are in, he maintains the municipalities they serve should be an integral part of finding a solution.
We’ve been their ally. We’ve gone to bat for them when they came looking for more money… We want to help the hospitals because healthcare is important to all our communities. Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison
Aitchison said the hospitals are once more in a deficit situation because the bulk of the funding they get from the Province is based on the number of procedures they conduct and the volumes simply aren’t there. He said the funding shortfall is becoming a vicious circle for the hospitals.
“They’re short two million dollars and what it comes down to is either the Ministry of Health has to come to the table and give another couple of million dollars or they start cutting services,” he said. “They’re breaking the law to run a deficit at the hospital. So I really understand the immense stress and pressure that they’re under.”
The board of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare – which manages both the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals – is recommending a one-hospital model for Muskoka. In August they presented their recommendation to the North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) – a provincial body which serves as a planning and funding conduit between healthcare providers in its catchment area and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
But the recommendation didn’t sit well with municipal leaders who urged the LHIN to reject the one-hospital model proposed by MAHC. In response, the board of the LHIN voted to have the agency act as an intermediary to try and resolve the impasse.
I think the LHIN is hopeful that we can find some common ground. The hospital board is looking at this from the perspective of the hospital and the hospital only. So I suggest that they’ve got a very narrow view of what the challenges are. Aitchison
“If you look at all the healthcare funding that goes on in Muskoka a third of it is related to hospitals, two-thirds of it is related to all kinds of other services. So what we want to know is if we can find a solution within the entire healthcare funding envelope that exists in Muskoka and basically keep some hospital services in both Huntsville and Bracebridge.”
Either way, Aitchison said, ideally, he and the mayor of Bracebridge would like to convince the LHIN, MAHC and the Minister to take a look at the issue “to see if we can’t find a made-in-Muskoka solution to solve the challenges of health care delivery in rural communities, but not just look at the hospitals but look at the much broader picture. We just think there’s a solution to be found there and if we’re all working together we can find it.”
He said up until now MAHC consultation with the mayors has been non-existent.
The consultation with us simply wasn’t consultation. It was calling us into a room, the mayors, saying here’s the situation. Here’s what we’ve done. This is what we’re going to recommend. Now go sell it to the community. Aitchison
He said one of the key requirements of the Ministry is that there be community support for any recommendation made and that is simply not the case at the moment.
Stakeholders are expected to begin a series of meetings with the LHIN as facilitator to come up with a consensus with MAHC on the future of its capital assets and its healthcare delivery model.
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