By Jean Bagshaw
The hospital needs your input! It is seeking feedback from the public by way of a survey that will take only a few minutes to complete.
You may ask the question, “Haven’t we been down this road before?” Well, yes and no. The future of our hospital/s and location of same have been addressed before but there was no broad consensus and since then people have been working tirelessly to re-examine the pros and cons of three different options.
However, if you, the public do not weigh in with your viewpoints and preferences, any conclusion that is reached will be without broad public support and will therefore lack legitimacy. Many seem to think that there is no point in participating because no-one is going to listen to them and no-one cares what they think. Not so, the Hospital committee wants to hear from as many of you as possible so that they can move forward knowing that the majority of residents are behind their efforts to modernize our health care infrastructure in a way that is supported by most residents in the region.
Does your vote matter? You bet it matters. So take a few minutes right now to complete the survey.
If you would like a hard copy, contact Allyson Snelling at 705 789-2311 ext 2544. The survey is available until September 30, 2017.
There isn’t much time left (September 30th, 2017 is the deadline) for people to make their opinion known. If the public do not participate, they are forfeiting their opportunity to have a say in future hospital infrastructure and services available for this region.
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
I attended the Huntsville information session and in the presentation one of the slides outlined the timelines for various stages in the task force plan. I have searched but haven’t been able to find it. I think it is important for residents to be able to look ahead to see what is coming next. For example, do we know when the deadline for the survey completion is? I have heard Sept. 30?
Hi Amy,
The survey is live again and you can access it at the same link above. An incorrect end date had been used which closed the survey too early. It sounds like it was an honest mistake and they fixed it as soon as they were made aware of it.
Yes, we have been trying the link as well and it is not working. We have sent a message to the administrators and hope that the link will be active again soon.
Thx for sharing but I tried to click through to the survey and it said it’s not active.
We need to clarify what is meant by “centrally located” when it comes to a single-sited acute care hospital. I believe that the common understanding of this term is geographic and refers to a place on the map as measured by distance. However, at the meeting to discuss the future of our respective hospital/s, it was suggested that this is not the criteria that is being used to determine the location of a single-sited hospital. Rather, they are tracking the visits to our current hospitals on the basis of postal codes and therefore addresses, with a view to determining from where the greatest numbers of patients are coming.
This would give preferential consideration to higher density areas and areas that are inclined to use a hospital over another type of health service access site.
It is ironic that we complain about the Ministry of Health when they use high volumes/large numbers of procedures/ and higher population densities as a criteria for funding, and yet it seems we are leaning in the same direction.
I believe that all residents who would be served by a single-site hospital, (if we go that route) should be fairly equidistant from the facility. I think that this should be a fundamental criteria for the decision as to where it would be located.
I also think that it will not be possible for the residents in this region to even look at a single-sited hospital without knowing where it will be located. This is a key piece of the puzzle that is not being revealed.
Everyone has an opinion, and if we want our perspective to be known, we must respond to the survey.
Thanks for this, and for providing the link to the survey….Let’s all make our needs and wishes known regarding our healthcare, and the kind of hospital Huntsville requires.