Save South Muskoka Hospital Committee is extremely disappointed with the comments made by MAHC regarding their alleged openness, yet they fail to disclose any financial information of importance. Physicians cannot negotiate in good faith when the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Board refuses to provide essential costings. MAHC ‘s excuse that it will affect bidding for future contracts is without foundation ten years into the future. Even our elected officials are kept in the dark resulting, unfortunately, in little comment from our councils. MAHC is spending one billion dollars from taxpayers’ coffers and yet, only their board members are privileged to know expenditures within “our” healthcare system. This is outrageous, and… very wrong!
There has been no release of financial matters on design, construction costs, land acquisitions, and ground preparation costs, transportation evaluations, nor has MAHC addressed how they will provide expenses for two hundred additional nursing staff when they are apparently fifty nurses currently short. It is absolutely unacceptable for MAHC to say, “Trust Us” … while refusing to produce any financial documentation so citizens may make informed decisions. This should not be a give-away to build a Huntsville regional hospital. We demand answers!
Save South Muskoka Hospital s anxiously awaiting the next round of discussions that the physicians will have in early May with the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Board of Directors. Subject to the outcome of those deliberations. should MAHC entertain any early submission of their recommendations to the Ministry of Health, they will be shown the full disdain of our citizens in peaceful protest.
MAHC’s claim of transparency, doesn’t fly when our seasonal citizens have not an opportunity to raise their own voices due to the off-season timeframe that Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare chose to host their public meetings? All citizens deserve to be heard, including our summer cottagers, and snowbirds, in addition to our permanent residents. When will MAHC host “Public Chats’ with these segments?
Citizens are strongly urged to continue protesting with signs, writing government personnel at all levels and additionally, voice your opinions directly to the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Board of Directors at: 705-769-2311, 7 05-645-4404 or [email protected].
Follow Save South Muskoka Hospital Committee at: ssmh.ca. or email: [email protected]
Bruce C. Kruger, Chair
Save South Muskoka Hospital
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Everyone knows the budget is one billion dollars. MAHC should advertise for proposals and costs to build new and also to upgrade and renovate existing hospitals. Once they have that process complete they can then show us which options are best
Couldn’t agree with you more Bruce. They have told the public, and apparently the doctors, nothing about costing. I’m sure there are at least broad financial numbers which could be shared without affecting the specifics of bidding. MAHC squashed the whole renovation idea saying it was too costly, again not sharing any numbers. They ask us to trust them, while making all decisions behind closed doors while talking about how open and transparent they are. Without public protest this winter South Muskoka would be getting a glorified walk-in clinic with 18 beds and no obstetrics. This is our chance to get it right for the future for all of Muskoka.
Sounds like someone has been sharpening their conspiratorial chops. No doubt MAHC has been working closely with the Ministry of Health on budgeting and let’s hope the kind of misinformation and fear mongering that’s going on doesn’t derail this crucial project. This is a massive investment in Muskoka and I’m impressed so far with how transparent MAHC has been and how they’ve shown a willingness to work with healthcare professionals to garner the best outcomes for residents of the region.
Whining is not going to help our cause.
It’s not at all outrageous that costing hasn’t been released as of yet. As already pointed out – there is bidding still going on. This is standard in large infrastructure projects. A billion dollars for two Muskoka hospitals is a huge investment in the region, and whether one is slightly larger than the other doesn’t change the fact that both Huntsville and Bracebridge will revive massive upgrades.
Bruce, would you rather pay more and get less, rather than let competitive bidding and procurement get the best costs?
Bruce, it is likely impossible for the MAHC Board and the planners that MAHC has engaged in provide the information that you are requesting. As the president of a large
healthcare consultancy organisation for many decades, the entire reality of MAHC’s situation rests with the reasonableness of their development plans. The Ministry of Health, to commit to a $1 B+ spend in a community population of Muskoka is a huge ask. When Halton Health in Oakville was built and opened about 15 years ago, the spend was $1.4B. The catchment area that included Burlington (205,000), Oakville (211,000) and Milton (42,000) – population of almost 600,000 residents. So the spend was no doubt justified. Perhaps reflect on the catchment area of Muskoka having 81,000 permanent residents + seasonal residents of 65,000 with those 65,000 who spend some of the summer here, most often have hospital related needs served by their local hospitals in southern Ontario.
If MAHC despite having two health care campuses is potentially wanting to spend $1 B+ it will be hard to reasonably justify that kind of capitalisation for about 13% of the population
comparatively to Halton Health (serving as an example only).
The other issue to come will be whether the municipalities and communities have the capacity to provide their capital share in this project which at this point sounds like
$200,000,000 or 20%.
In Ontario hospital development, planned spends (even when the two aspects above are met) are running rampantly over their planned spend due to endless ‘Change Orders’ during construction – often in the range of 20% and higher.
As a reminder, there have been knowledgeable people in our community that sounded this alarm many years ago and worked hard to have MAHC take a more prudent approach which was expand existing hospitals to meet the evolving (new) needs of our community and renovate the existing hospital space. This is much less costly, easier to bring on stream from a development perspective and the reduced cost may be more in line with our local communities required share.
If you want to refer to an excellent example where this happened – refer to the Joe Brant Hospital in Burlington – they expanded and renovated existing buildings and the place looks fabulous (like a new facility) + meets the up to date requires of that community. Talk to Tim Withey and Sven Miglin who chaired a group of h.c. savvy health care professionals who worked through a more cost effective hospital development approach to the Ministry and MAHC about 6 years ago.
The only reason for all new in this economy is likely tied to grandiose thinking.
I really don’t know why people are listening to this dude over the hospital people. They already said they can’t release the numbers because it would impact the contractor bidding. Bruce, why don’t you meet with these people instead of wasting everyone’s time?