This commentary represents the views of the Huntsville Women’s Group, a collective of local Muskoka women varying in ages and backgrounds. We meet weekly for discussions and activities. Across all differences, one thing that we agree on is that we want Huntsville to continue to have a hospital in our community. We want a hospital with services that meet the needs of permanent residents—not just tourists or seasonal residents.
Our concerns are as follows:
Time. With a medical emergency (accident, heart attack, stroke), receiving timely medical intervention is crucial. Minutes count. Ours is a rural location, not city streets. To add more response time could prove fatal in many cases.
Ambulance usage. The time and cost would increase. Many may choose to try to drive themselves to the hospital for fear of the time or cost of ambulance services. Although this choice can be dangerous, it is understandable when people are forced to make decisions due to fear, or socioeconomic factors.
Medical staff. Attracting competent and forward-thinking medical staff to Muskoka seems to be an ongoing struggle. Without a hospital facility and modern equipment, why would medical professionals choose Huntsville to live and work? Their choices will have a domino effect, impacting where families and businesses choose to reside or operate. This in turn will affect employment opportunities, the educational system, funding, infrastructure, programming, and the numerous other services that may or may not continue.
Continuity of care. For patients who must regularly get treatment (i.e., dialysis), having to travel a greater distance three times a week no matter the weather would cause increased stress – something they do not need! Not to mention the financial burden, wear and tear on vehicles for those lucky enough to have their own transportation, and time.
In larger facilities, there is also the issue of staff continuity. Patients who regularly go to the hospital because of their specific medical conditions rely on the staff. When the staff are always changing, they never really get to foster a rapport with their patients in order to best assist them. The bond of security and care suffers.
Patient support. As most hospitals now run a 24/7 visitation schedule, hospitals are depending on family and friends to take on some of the patient care. For some people, this may not be a burden, but if you are a senior or someone who does not drive or own a vehicle or have the financial resources to get to another hospital, it could create insurmountable issues. It would be heartbreaking if you were unable to be with your loved one in such a difficult time. Studies repeatedly bear out that social connection from loved ones improves patients’ health and shortens recovery periods.
New hospitals and huge hospitals. Although new, massive hospitals may look lovely and boost an architect’s reputation, they are not always practical. For example, the new Sault Ste. Marie hospital is enormous and therefore has huge parking lots, and the overflow lots are far from the main doors. For those patients who are not delivered to the front door, what a journey they must undertake! The cost of parking is also prohibitive. Because of the size of the building, even patients who are mobile and otherwise able can not always make it in a safe and timely manner to their treatment area, and finding a wheelchair is difficult. The entrance lobby is large but with few seating areas and most people do not stay there. Large hospitals can feel cold and impersonal.
These are but a few thoughts we hope will be consider before decisions are made. We, the members of the Huntsville Women’s Group, would urge the decision makers to carefully consider the very real needs of the people of Huntsville, both immediately and with attention to our town’s future. We do not exaggerate to say that future may become rather tenuous without a local hospital.
Huntsville Women’s Group:
Kathleen May, Carol Ferris, Tanis Wilson, Pat Sheedy, Cathy Devigneux, Sandra Smith, Robin Steele, Jocelyn Luce, Joy Stott, Helen Prager, Gerri Lee Nunn, Linda Wilson, June Tebby, Donna Parlee, Katherine Kristiansen, Debbie Cybulcki, and Margo Cybulcki
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
Point well taken Brian! I am certain that those affected in the area of the two towns will see to it that there will be a change at the top. Like you say, bureaucracy knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing!. This issue is one that should be submitted to Doppear a couple of days before election day!!
It is a bit funny, in a sad sort of way, the hospital issue in both Huntsville and Bracebridge.
Huntsville has had a hospital of sorts since the late 1800’s but the first “real hospital” for Huntsville was built in 1949 om the current Fairvern sight.
I watched it grow over the years until 1977 when the current “new” hospital was built. It may be coincidence but Huntsville’s 1977 hospital was built under the government of Frank Miller and if one looks just a little to the west Parry Sound’s new hospital was built under the guidance of Ernie Eves, both Provincial Premiers of their day and both from the respective locations. This might have been an influence.
Every step of this history was a positive gain for the town, the words “more”, “better”, “bigger” pretty well described this history as the hospital grew and services were added.
Now, we have instant communication and technology that we only dreamed about just a few years ago and for reasons that even a group of committees can’t really explain fully, we are told that we can’t have our hospital any more as for some reason we can’t afford it! This despite the fact that both towns have more population and money than ever before in history, all history and automation has reduced the workload required to provide the services!
Not so long ago we were all led to believe that computers and high tech would make our lives much better, provide services we could not have before at costs that were reduced from those of the past.
It seems that somehow we have misapplied these technological benefits because we are not seemingly getting an “improvement in the services.
It is hard to fathom how this can be.
It reminds me a bit of an old saying that “bureaucracy knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing”.
Not trying to place aspersions on the efforts of out current health care managers, but I just keep wondering why it is that we have these two, not terribly decrepit hospitals now, that have grown over all these years, with dedicated and capable staff and yet we are told that somehow all this is no good at all and has to be essentially “thrown away” and replaced with a new, hopefully state of the art facility that will be built somewhere in the woods between the two towns and serve nobody in either town any better than the hospitals we currently have. I wonder why we can’t add to the existing hospitals and provide the extra service capacity in both locations?
A little bit of redundancy might cost a little more than one hospital but surely it would be a better “service” to our communities and there is ultimate safety in redundancy. If some disaster befalls one hospital temporarily, it is highly unlikely it would affect the second at the same time. Not so with one new hospital.
If more funds are needed I can think back just briefly, off the top of my head and wonder about the cost of gas powered electric plants a few years ago where we paid billions for nothing, the future cost of looking after all the details of legal marijuana, the insane salaries of some quasi public servants… and that is without even looking at the history. I’m sure we can find the money somewhere in this Province to maintain and build small town hospitals in a better way. If the local administration can’t make this work due to Provincial rules, maybe those Provincial rules need to be looked at. There is an election coming soon. This should be the top item of discussion.
To answer Karen’s question: It has been repeatedly shown that we need 2 new cars, and 1 will not do., we go out and find the money for the required vehicles. In this case we will need to replace those floors with holes and go on from there. Brick and mortar (buildings) are needed in both Bracebridge and Huntsville.
If we elect Governments in Toronto and Ottawa that will stop wasting billions of dollars on scandalous goings on, and concentrate on taking care of the people of Ontario, then the claim we cannot afford two Hospitals is dead wrong!
Personally, I’m a wee bit disappointed in Mr. Miller, but maybe he should explain his silence on this issue? Seems to me his father’s name was in the address of HDMH, right? Everyone, repeat the slogan, “Find the Funds”!
Move ahead with what the people want, TWO full service hospitals situated one in each of the two Towns.
Thank you Karen for the simply put illustration. We would say why spend 50 million on a new “car” when you can fix the “holes in the floor” in both vehicles for $20 million. There are a lot of beautifully restored “cars” out there.
Sometimes there’s a need for a new “car”, when you have 2 older ones requiring lots of work, I.e., holes in the floor, and you can only afford one new? So what do you do?
Well done ladies from the Huntsville Womens Group. We agree with you 100%. Just to add our two cents this is what we believe. The survey my wife and I completed was biased. In one section, there was no place to put “do not agree with” or room to write your preference in regards to which model to choose. And you were not able to submit your survey unless one of the three “available options” were checked off. We believe we need two hospital with services as currently provided. We have lived here for 27 years, we are in the 55-65 range and I have a bad heart. My wife is not able to drive due to her disabilities, and we are basically on our own. If I have a heart attack and I am not able to get to the hospital in time – I will die. Yes, we would need to call an ambulance, right now we have insurance coverage, but as we age towards 65, we may be unable to pay for an ambulance. Also, what am I to do for support – my wife can’t get here to see me – am I to recover with no support. There is no infrastructure being looked at like running a bus service or a hospital shuttle running several times a day to either Bracebridge or to even Port Sydney. What are we to do? And we are slightly better off than a lot of other people in this town – what are they to do? Plus we have patients coming from a wide area – Sundridge, Burks Falls, Algonquin Park, Oxtongue and Dorset – they too will never survive with a life threatening condition. Most of the doctors don’t want this new one site plan, the public/residents don’t want it. Listen to us. Please! before it’s too late. Why is the board only giving us three options. Do they know something we don’t know? Has the decision already been made and the board is trying to pacify us, until things go too far and we can’t have a say? My wife wrote to Norm Miller about this, several years ago, to which he promised to reply to in person but we have never heard from him – does he know something? What’s truly going on? Why are we not being listened to?
Very well put, ladies, and definitely echoing the feelings of this community, continually stated by many over the past 2 years or more! The questions remain….why do we receive useless, manipulative public surveys from our hospital Board (whose preference is known but not agreed to by most), why is this Board ignoring the valid comments and concerns published by our qualified medical staff, and why is the Board ensuring that they are staffed with only those who agree with their position?? Representation needs to be more focused on the needs of the community, composed and supported by medical staff, not the currently lacking compliment.