There is a massive movement afoot to transform the way health care is delivered in Muskoka and surrounding communities – a transformation that could be held up as an example for other similar communities in Ontario.
Called the Muskoka and Area Health System Transformation Council (MAHST), this group of individuals will roll up their sleeves and begin working on improving the way health care is delivered in Muskoka and surrounding communities. The North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network, which manages and distributes health care funding in the region, will appoint the Council’s chair and co-chair shortly. The appointment of individuals to sit on the Council is expected to take place by the end of July while recruitment of individuals for the various working groups is expected to take place throughout the summer. In the end, an estimated 50 to 70 people will be recruited to work on health care transformation in this region for the next nine to 12 months, according to a press release issued by the District Municipality of Muskoka, a partner in MAHST.
The formation of the Council and its various working groups is a direct response to the constant funding deficit faced by Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, which manages both the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals, the fact that many individuals in the broader community don’t have access to a doctor, as well as the growing pressures from an aging population, explained Dr. David Mathies, who is actively involved with MAHST.
When you look at the entire picture a number of people came together and thought that perhaps what we need to do is integrate all those (health care) services as much as possible and through better integration and perhaps all the way up to single governance of all services, or most services, that we could find the savings that we could redirect towards both acute care and the communityDr. David Mathies
In a way, what’s being explored by MAHST is similar to what was in place before the amalgamation of both the Bracebridge and Huntsville hospitals an estimated 10 years ago. At that time, home care was provided through the Huntsville hospital, which also had under its purview Fairvern Nursing Home, ambulance and other services.
To a certain degree we’re going back in time but more so even better, even bigger. The scope of what we’re talking about is probably even bigger than what we did ten years agoDr. David Mathies, a member of MAHST
He said the province is trying to transform the delivery of some of that very same care because the delivery model for home care, as an example, is not as efficient as previously thought.
“There’s been a lot of overhead developed by the current system so there’s an effort by government to make it more efficient and we are seizing this opportunity to make changes here at the same time,” he said.
Mathies said as MAHST rolls out, he’s keeping his eye on two main goals. The first is to ensure that everyone has access to a primary care physician (which is expected to take some of the pressure off the hospitals’ emergency rooms) and the second is to ensure acute care services remain viable in Huntsville.
While the single-hospital model supported by the Board of both the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals is not completely off the table, Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison maintains an emergency room in both communities is vital.
“We’ve put everyone on notice that any move towards a single site needs to be put on hold until we’re done this process. And if we can demonstrate that an emergency room in Huntsville and an emergency room in Bracebridge makes sense, are viable, are sustainable financially with the savings we find elsewhere, then that’s what should continue,” he said.
Aitchison also noted that if there are services that the hospital is paying to run that could be provided elsewhere so that the board for both hospitals can focus its resources on maintaining its emergency rooms, he would be supportive of that.
“In a community the size of Huntsville and the area that surrounds it, if you don’t have an emergency room you don’t have a hospital. That’s the principle that surely the board of Huntsville hospital always operated on before amalgamation and I continue to believe that.”
He also noted that there’s a huge influx of people moving to areas like Burk’s Falls and Perry Township, areas that rely on Huntsville’s emergency room as well as those who frequent Algonquin Park.
“If you look at the growth pattern of the municipalities between the census of 2006 and 2011, the municipality that grew the most, had the highest percentage of growth to the population, was Perry Township – Novar, Emsdale – just north of Huntsville. “
He argued that all those communities along the Highway 11 corridor where the province has made a significant investment in expanding the highway, is where the biggest growth is happening.
It doesn’t make sense to me that one department in the provincial government would make a significant investment that actually encourages growth and more people living in an area and then another department of the government would move emergency services away from those people. This is what we’ll continue to advocate for, we’ll work with this health transformation council to demonstrate the need for those emergency rooms to stay open in both communitiesHuntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison
Community members are still being sought to sit on various working groups. For more detailed information on MAHST, including its terms of reference and timelines, please click here.
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