HUNTSVILLE CROWD EMBRACES BASIC HOSPITALS CONCEPT WITH FEW OPERATIONAL OBJECTIONS
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
HUNTSVILLE — Keep calm and carry on.
That was Day 4 here for Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare tonight as the war of words over the new hospitals ended its first week of community engagements.
With MPP Graydon Smith at his second MAHC meeting in as many nights, some 250+ people filled almost all available seats at the Active Living Centre to hear more and less of the same message they would have heard in Dwight, Gravenhurst and Burk’s Falls the past three nights.
Smith offered me a “no comment” after, when I went looking for his reaction to the meeting.
He said wouldn’t be commenting “until after I’ve heard all the meetings,” which he said he hoped to attend including a pivotal one next Tuesday in Bracebridge — where he’s the former mayor — and finally in Port Carling Wednesday.
Preaching, not surprisingly, to the largely converted, the MAHC board and staff stuck to a script that was tailor-made for Muskoka’s largest and most northerly community.
Same room, same issue, different town, different outcome than two nights ago in Gravenhurst where an overflow crowd of 500 shouted and jeered health officials.
With a couple of cops needlessly on hand for good measure this time, the mostly collegial atmosphere was more respectful than raw.
Questions were more about how Huntsville District Memorial Hospital will work and less about personal experiences or the great divide.
Board chair Moreen Miller made sure of that by warning people not to share TMI.
She also said anyone who had questioned the board at previous meetings wouldn’t be given the opportunity again in order to allow others to speak.
And, by the way, you had to have a seat. There was no standing room.
Smith even sat alone at a back table — after chatting with some of the people beforehand.
Same applies to Bracebridge next Tuesday night. So get to the Sportsplex early if you want a seat, because the doors will closed to outsiders.
It’s the fire code, Bracebridge Mayor Rick Maloney said afterwards echoing MAHC staff.
Polite to the point of being confused for board members, many merely expressed important concerns about operational challenges such as nursing and staff shortages, one less obstetrics opportunity with a plan for just three instead of four birthing units — and none officially in Bracebridge.
Though moms ready to drop in the Heart of Muskoka won’t be shown the door and handed the GPS co-ordinates for HDMH, said Dr. Khaled Abdel-Razek.
The chief of staff said with two-thirds of Muskoka’s 300 babies born each year in Huntsville, the province will no longer fund two labour suites at each site.
Abdel-Razek added about a letter by 41 south Muskoka doctors opposed to the plan that they don’t represent all MAHC’s accredited physicians.
Miller was more blunt, saying they have a plan, but it’s the Ministry of Health that has the final say.
Tonight’s meeting did shed some new light and facts maybe unknown to most.
As of today, MAHC has 123 beds (56 in Huntsville and 67 in Bracebridge). Under the new model HDMH will receive 139 beds and SMMH 18 — an overall increase of 34.
That statistical fact alone didn’t garner any noticeable response from the audience, who seemed to take it as a given now a week into the hearing model process that appears to show Huntsville with the upper hand.
“You’re going to do what you’re going to do and we’re going to get what we’re going to get,” observed one speaker in the Q&A following another of president and CEO Cheryl Harrison’s 30-minute presentations.
She said about 70 people attended last night’s meeting Burk’s Falls and “it was exactly like this.”
“They also asked some good questions — and they’re not even in (Muskoka),” but are served by MAHC.
Matt Richter, the Ontario Green Party’s new deputy leader, had a seat near the front.
He said he’d like to hear more, but “absolutely, he thinks the province can put more money in to the hospitals.
Mahoney said he, too, was reserving judgement until at least the Bracebridge meeting Feb. 6.
But he’s had no gut reaction about the way things are shaping up.
“It’s not up to me to understand what’s equal and what’s not,” Mahoney said. “We didn’t ask MAHC how to design the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre. So we stay in our lane, I stay my lane. I expect MAHC is working within the medical community, within our community to come up with a model that will meet the needs of our community.
“There some areas in this plan that our doctors have concerns with. My role as leader is to make sure MAHC is hearing those concerns and that MAHC is addressing those concerns appropriately. So that at the end of the day we move forward with a health-care plan and a primary program that is exactly what we want to have.”
Mahoney said he met with some of the concerned doctors last Thursday and he’s taken their concerns to MAHC.
Asked if it was premature to say how the town’s financial pledge could change if community reaction continues to be negative, he said it was.
“Yeah, it’s premature. We will let MAHC work through their process. We want MAHC to hear the concerns the people are expressing to them. And we want MAHC to be able to respond to those concerns and respond back to the community.”
What if MAHC responds negatively and refuses to alter its plan or concede to the wishes of those opposed?
“I’m not going to go there. I expect that MAHC, as they said tonight, ‘we are hear to listen.’ So when I hear that I expect the people are listening — MAHC is listening — and they will take those concerns and look at that how they fit their plan.
“We heard from one of the doctors tonight that our goal is to listen to folks and if we need to adapt we adapt.”
From what he’s heard the past week and longer, would he vote for it?
“It’s not a question of me voting for it or not voting for it. The question is I want to make sure that the folks of Bracebridge, when they have their chance on Tuesday, are able to share their concerns with MAHC. That MAHC is going to hear those concerns and that MAHC will adjust their plan to the best way they can to make sure we are going to have the health care we deserve in south Muskoka.”
Harrison believes all questions are great.
“I do, because they have to be answered. Otherwise they become half truths that people make up. So I don’t think any question is silly. Because if it brings increased knowledge and understanding of what we’re trying to do, then I’m great.”
But Harrison doesn’t think the province can ante up more.
“No, I think it’s pretty clear, frankly, with the construction costs in a lot of sectors and my conversations with capital branch from the ministry (of health) they’ve been ‘please see if you can do something different.’ Because the money isn’t there.
“And quite, honestly, I think they’re giving a great amount of money and we should be as efficient with it. Not just for the build, but also for making sure when we build these hospitals we can afford to run them.
“And that’s where I feel very passionate that this model will do that.”
She referred the question to the province of whether higher personal Ontario taxes would pay for all new hospitals.
“I don’t think so for our project,” she said, adding the Local Share committee is at 95 per cent of its goal of $225 million and still with the feeling that Muskoka has given all it can or is willing to give to these hospitals.
But asked if that assumption was based on fundraising information and goals last summer when two equal hospitals were the plan, she said “I don’t think there is any more appetite to tap people in the community.”
Not even given the latest model shortfalls now?
“Remember that $500 million (extra beyond the $1 billion approved), we would have to get about 10 per cent of that from Local Share and then you’d have to get that other amount from the government. So both would have to do it.”
Is Harrison ready for Bracebridge after four dress rehearsals?
“Absolutely!”
And will it be like tonight?
“I have no idea. I just hope there’s lots of people there and they’re open to ask questions respectfully and wait for answers. This is amazing to see the amount of people this passionate about their health care and their community. I have all time in the world for it.
“So I’m looking forward. There is a significant amount of change with this model and some people are feeling there is more impact on them than others. But once people hear what it actually is, hopefully that turns their understanding around.”
The northern swing of chats heads back to south Muskoka Tuesday in Bracebridge and finally in Port Carling Wednesday. There are also virtual chats Friday morning and Monday night.
MORE COVERAGE OF MEETING TOMORROW
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