An open letter to our communities:
Over the past number of weeks, the leadership team of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare has watched as our Chief Executive Officer has been referred to in a negative light, her reputation unfairly tarnished. We, the leadership, want you to know the Natalie we know.
Natalie began her hospital career as a front-line Registered Nurse. She cared for patients receiving chemotherapy treatment just as many of our nurses do today. She worked long days and nights, just as many of our nurses do today. She exhibited a kindness and true caring attitude, just as many of our nurses do today. These attributes have transcended her 41-year health-care career; a career that progressed to leadership, from roles like clinical nurse specialist to Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive roles and for the past eight years as MAHC’s CEO.
Every day we bear witness to her steadfast leadership, the long and tireless hours spent advocating for safe, quality care in Muskoka, and enduring compassion for the patients and staff of MAHC. Natalie is the type of leader who fetches a warm blanket for patients when she has seen that they are cold. She is the type of leader who has gotten out of bed in the late evening hours to come to our hospital to help the staff during a time of need.
Natalie is a mentor to many of us. She coaches us through challenging situations, encourages us to live and breathe our organizational values of accountability, respect, optimism, leadership and engagement. She supports us in developing and implementing programs that enhance the patient experience, from expanding services through the addition of ear, nose and throat and gynecological surgeries to creating a comfort fund for patients in need, to developing community partnerships that have enabled locally-grown produce to be used in patient meals. These are just a few examples of the many improvements to health care in Muskoka from Natalie’s leadership.
Natalie lives in this community, owns a home here, takes her dog to the local vet, gets her hair cut in town, and does her grocery shopping in the same stores as every other Muskoka resident. Natalie is part of the Muskoka community. She takes her responsibility to serve the community and patients seriously. She cares about the residents of our community. She works within the mandate of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, manages significant financial deficits and handles daily operational issues, all while ensuring our communities are provided with the outstanding care they need and deserve today and into the future.
To those in our community who have made negative remarks about our CEO in social media or otherwise without knowing her, your words could not be further from the truth. We hope we have shared just a little insight into her positive influence and impact on local health care. This is our Natalie: nurse, mentor, coach, leader. We stand firmly behind and beside her.
Yours in health,
Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Leadership Team:
Robert Alldred-Hughes, Nancy Andrews, Danette Beechinor, Noreen Chan, Jo-Anne Chandler, Laura Derbyshire, Frankie Dewsbury, Harold Featherston, Diane George, Bev Leslie-Suddaby, Esther Millar, Dan Moloney, Janice Raine, Kim Rose, Tim Smith, Sonja Stirling, Erika Strok McLellan, Tim Miller, Ellen Stilwell, Irene Tamas-Murray, Catherine Vanclieaf, Cindi Wigston, Laurene Wittich
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Does anyone know WHEN (date) the decision will be made on hospitals future in muskoka? It’s time to move on and get the show on the road! One way or the other! I predict no decision will be made until after the provincial election. Still … it would be nice to have a firm date for a decision, with reasons for the decision and action plan to move FWD.
Please spare us the soggy personal guff. No doubt Ms. Bubela is a nice person, kind to animals, and caring popular leader of her chosen & tireless ‘Leadership Team’.
Unfortunately, more importantly it appears that under her watch MAHC no longer holds public trust. How this has happened and the dire consequences for Muskoka health services have been conclusively demonstrated in these columns by such insightful observes as Messrs. Wilkins, Maund Mackenzie, and many others, and reinforced by repeated expressions of public opinion….Consequently, as Huntsville Mayor has declared, having lost public trust it is now time to disband the MAHC board & apparatus. Just go…
You do realize that there are paramedics and MAHC hospital nurses on that list too. Some earning in excess of $100,000 this year. Plus many town and district staff and board of ed. staff etc. etc. Even the head of the YMCA is getting paid $200,000 Just because they get paid more than, for example a groundskeeper, doesn’t make their jobs less valuable and worthy of that level of pay. They don’t work 9 to 5 and they have huge responsibilities and they have to put up with a public lashing every time this list comes out.
What keeps getting overlooked is that there are 25 people on the planning task force who have a big job to do. They have to bring a recommendation to the hospital board. I have no doubt that the recommendation will be for the 2 existing hospitals. This planning committee includes the 3 mayors – Burk’s Falls, Bracebridge and Huntsville. The mayors tend to downplay their participation and act as if this is being done to them, not with them. It also has 7 doctors, 2 hospital foundation reps, a hospital auxiliary rep. a LHIN rep., a District rep. a patient rep. plus 3 hospital administrative staff and other community volunteers. Why the panic and mud-slinging? We have made our feelings known in surveys and numerous public meetings, why not let the committee that the mayors sit and I’m sure have a strong influence on, do their work? Queen’s Park is dictating this whole process not the hospital.
As a non-resident with a special love for Lake of Bays and Huntsville, I respectfully offer the following. I know none of the individuals involved in this critical issue but it is apparent to me that MAHC is clearly not representing the needs and views of the Huntsville and Lake of Bays community. MAHC leadership does appear to be following an agenda not driven from within the community. What is the reason for having a local / regional agency at all if these needs and views do not form the basis for action?
that’s all well and fine, but you could hardly justify the wages that they are being paid in an area they cannot afford to pay the bills at the hospital they’re working at. The Huntsville Hospital I hear is running in a deficit and yet we still have executives that make over $100,000 a year shameful
I totally agree with your thoughts about Natalie. I only met her once when sitting across from her at a Northern Ontario School of Medicine luncheon for students who would be working in Muskoka that year. I found her to be a very interesting, dedicated, friendly individual, dedicated to her position, and interested in the welfare of Muskoka.
However, I agree with Scott Aitchison and his many supporters that your team does not appear to be forthright nor supportive of the wishes of Muskoka residents. Your attitude will continue to bring negative comments, and Evelyn Brown has consistently made her thoughts known on top level government, which we can only assume carries forth into her thoughts on our hospitals! Though I no longer live in Huntsville, it continues to be very dear to my heart.