{"id":44531,"date":"2018-02-09T10:21:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T15:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=44531"},"modified":"2018-02-09T12:00:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T17:00:45","slug":"task-force-says-must-include-single-site-hospital-option-review-asks-residents-keep-open-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/task-force-says-must-include-single-site-hospital-option-review-asks-residents-keep-open-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Task force says it must include single site hospital option in its review, asks residents to keep an open mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making a recommendation on a future hospital model that the community can get behind is a daunting task.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the 25-member Capital Plan Development Task Force<\/a><\/span> has been asked to do and they\u2019re expected to deliver their findings to the hospital board sometime this spring. The Board will then consider whether to move forward with that option and submit it to the Minister\u2019s office for approval. But until that happens, a significant funding request recently pitched by the chair and vice chair of the hospital board to a District committee will likely be on hold.<\/p>\n

On January 19, 2018 the group approached the District\u2019s Corporate and Emergency Services Committee in anticipation of District\u2019s budget deliberations. It told committee that it would take a whopping $48 million just to keep the doors open at both the Bracebridge and Huntsville hospital sites, three to five years down the road. But that wasn\u2019t all; their biggest ask was the anticipated 10 per cent local share required of any future hospital redevelopment.<\/p>\n

“In 2015 our estimates of this local share, including infrastructure costs and required equipment not funded by the MOHLTC (Ministry Of Health and Long-Term Care) ranged from $84 to $114 million, depending on the model we chose to go with. We do not anticipate that these figures will change substantially with the options being considered by today\u2019s task force,\u201d Board vice-chair Phil Matthews wrote in his speaking notes to committee.<\/p>\n

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Matthews has been on the hospital board for seven years, including in 2015 when the Board came out in support of a single hospital site to replace the existing two acute care hospitals in this region. That decision was met with vehement opposition from all community corners.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to May 2017 and the hospital board has entered into a planning agreement with the Minister\u2019s office which includes up to a million dollar grant to firm up its plan before trying to move it forward. You can find the agreement here<\/a><\/span>. (The good stuff starts on page 26).<\/p>\n

In terms of District support, council agreed to increase annual contribution to its health care fund from $400,000 to $600,000 with the entire amount expected to go to Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC), which looks after both hospitals, sometime in 2019 once its other commitments have ended. But that\u2019s a drop in the bucket compared to the numbers the hospital board was hoping for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question that councillors at that level are prepared to make some kind of contribution off the tax bill towards a redevelopment and the capital needs of our hospital \u2014 there\u2019s no question about that. I think the challenge that we have with their presentation was that we don\u2019t have a plan yet,\u201d said Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison, who chairs the District\u2019s Corporate and Emergency Services Committee and also sits on the task force examining the various hospital models.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the community has made it clear they don\u2019t want something like a single site and yet the planning task force continues to contemplate that or other possibilities and I think until that\u2019s completely off the table then they\u2019re barking up the wrong tree,\u201d said Aitchison, who indicated he would personally vote against any possibility of funding a single hospital site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout some commitment from the District, nothing\u2019s going to happen. So it tells me that they had better listen to what the community and what their council is telling them and that is that a single site \u2014 we don\u2019t want that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

What do others on the task force have to say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Doppler recently sat down with Cameron Renwick and Don Mitchell, chair and vice-chair of the task force.<\/p>\n

They both pleaded for people to keep an open mind and assured that despite the hospital board\u2019s 2015 recommendation for a single hospital site, all three models will be fully examined. They are:<\/p>\n