Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller made the following statement in support of everyone who relies upon the hospitals in Huntsville and Bracebridge:
I rise today to again express my support for the two hospital sites in Huntsville and Bracebridge. This has been a big issue in Muskoka for a number of years, especially since 2015, when the board of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) proposed the idea of a single hospital site.
This week, Huntsville town council was considering a motion to ask the province to dismiss the board and CEO of MAHC. I am pleased the council agreed to put that aside for a month while they meet with the board. I want to thank the board of MAHC for offering to meet with council to answer their questions.
This motion was an unusual step, but Mayor Aitchison and the council are doing their best to represent the views of the community. Unfortunately, concern that the MAHC board has already decided on a single site and is just going through the motions of listening to the public has the mayors of Huntsville and Bracebridge and the communities frustrated.
To address these concerns, I encourage the board of MAHC to be completely open with council and release as much information as possible to the public.
I don’t want to put all the blame on Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare. MAHC is dealing with significant funding challenges. For some reason, MAHC did not receive its fair share of recent increases in hospital funding. While the government announced a 4.6 per cent increase across Ontario, MAHC only received a 1.4 per cent increase, not enough to keep up with salary increases required by collective agreements signed by the province or increased energy costs.
I call upon the province to increase funding to MAHC in order to ensure two fully operational hospital sites can be maintained.
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The Liberal government has been particularly tone-deaf (see my post above) when it comes to rural areas. And in any case, the bureaucrats in the government are extremely resistant to the demands of taxpayers. Many political observers have long lamented the autocracy of “professional bureaucrats” who are even insensitive toward our elected representatives. A number of MPPs and MPs have lamented that dealing with the entrenched bureaucracy is a nightmare.
We in Huntsville and Bracebridge are not the only small municipalities to be similarly punished.
Our situation in Muskoka is roughly analogous to that of the Town of Grimsby. In 2012, they suffered the cancellation of their plan to redevelop the antiquated West Lincoln Memorial Hospital site. It was cancelled by the newly installed Liberal government, under Dalton McGinty. This was in spite of the residents having already raised $14 million toward the project. WLMH was then subsumed under Hamilton Health Sciences hospital system, shortly after (2014).
According to the Hamilton Spectator, in commenting on a new (2017) possibility of redeveloping the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital site, under a Hamilton Health Sciences shuffling of hospital buildings (with some closings expected among buildings that are newer than WLMH, and the building of some new hospital buildings):
“…The plan also revives redevelopment of West Lincoln Memorial Hospital that was cancelled in 2012 when Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government killed a number of hospital projects in Tory-held ridings. West Lincoln is in the Niagara West-Glanbrook riding of Tim Hudak, who was opposition leader at the time. Hamilton Health Sciences CEO, Rob MacIsaac stated: ‘West Lincoln Memorial Hospital is well past its “best-before date” in terms of infrastructure’.” But, he also mentioned that there was NO PLAN TO KEEP THE SITE AS AN ACUTE CARE SITE (emphasis mine). Grimsby is about 20 minutes, by car, from Hamilton General Hospital (one hour by buses that run every hour). Grimsby is 27 kilometres from Hamilton General.
I was dismayed to read that Mac Isaac, CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences, receives at least $650,000+ in annual compensation (he received over $750,000 a couple of years ago, due to a “pension adjustment”). This, in spite of having no experience in the health care field, prior to his appointment by the Board of Hamilton Health Sciences. MacIsaac is a lawyer whose previous experience is all in the public sector. He worked a number of years as the President of Mohawk College in Hamilton, having had no administrative experience in higher education, and for Metrolinx, though he had no experience in transportation or even urban planning. At Hamilton Health Sciences, he has a bevy of highly-paid vice presidents and administrative heads working for him. They are on the Sunshine List, with most receiving well over the minimum required to land on the list. The Liberal government greatly expanded the number of bureaucrats on the Sunshine List (in higher education, public infrastructure and the huge healthcare bureaucracy.
By contrast, the average surgeon, (surgeons are the highest paid medical professionals in Ontario) receives $440,000 per year. Out of this, (s)he must pay rent and utilities on his/her office space, in addition to the salaries of his/her office staff and a portion of his/her medical liability insurance. (S)he receives no sick pay or vacation pay and receives nothing toward his/her retirement. Surgeons often work very long hours under very stressful conditions of short staffing of hospitals and antiquated facilities and equipment. General practitioners receive about half of a surgeon’s pay and must foot the same amount in other expenses as do surgeons. The Liberal Provincial government’s MoH bureaucrats continue to turn a deaf ear to physicians’ pleas to be able to have some say in how health care dollars are spent. I was heartened to read that the physicians of Quebec have demanded that instead of taking an increase in pay for themselves, that hospital personnel (nurses, dietary, etc.) receive a pay increase instead.
The West Lincoln Memorial building is over 70 years old and has had only one recent update to deal with critical problems (asbestos remediation along with heating and electrical repairs) for about $4 million. One wonders where the $14 million raised for a new hospital, by the citizens of Grimsby, went? Just last year, hospital administrators at WLMH were practically ecstatic as MLMH “has been given permission to speak to the Ministry of Health” about the possibility of redevelopment. I wonder if they have been told by Hamilton Health Sciences that they are unlikely to remain an acute care facility?
Every single politician or political candidate – federal, provincial and municipal is promising 2 hospitals. It’s an election year for Norm Miller and the mayors. They will promise what ever will get them votes. That’s how the game works. Promises were also made to the people of Bala but the Bala Falls project is still in the works.
Just because these guys make promises, doesn’t mean they can deliver. They will always tell you what you want to hear. It’s just in their nature.
Giving MAHC a 1.4% funding increase, whilst the rest of the province receives a 4.6% increase in funding, is sending a message…that MAHC will have to “play ball” with the Ministry of Health or be severely punished. We are directing our ire at the MAHC Board when we should be focusing on the Ministry of Health and those who hold the purse-strings