PORT CARLING RESIDENTS TELL MAHC THEY DON’T WANT TO GO TO HUNTSVILLE FOR HOSPITAL SERVICES
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
PORT CARLING — The sixth — and maybe not the last — MAHC hospitals meeting drew another large crowd last night.
MPP Graydon Smith, who spoke out the evening before in Bracebridge calling for calm in the debate, was not present.
But Muskoka Lakes Mayor Peter Kelley, who has attended most Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare meetings, took over hosting the Q&A section of the meeting. He said it wasn’t his meeting. But that he wanted to that portion differently than when the mic was handed out to those who put up their hands.
Unlike other meetings in Bracebridge and Gravenhurst Kelley put the emphasis on questions rather than statements when they approached a single microphone in the centre of the community centre.
They were issued numbered cards to speak — with five at a time lining up for four rounds.
Many who spoke in opposition reiterated previous concerns expressed across Muskoka.
MAHC board members spent considerable time answering each after complaining that at previous meetings they weren’t able to respond and address each question adequately enough.
Overall the mood of the crow was more constrained, but definitely as focused in its general opposition.
Some said they wouldn’t go to Huntsville for hospital services, because it was “too far.”
They didn’t want to see South Muskoka Memorial Hospital to be seen as just an emergency room.
The move of obstetrics services to be single-sited in Huntsville also didn’t go down well, especially with many nurses on hand.
Dr. Shannon Lees represented physicians in the south of Muskoka outlining their various concerns on everything from a threat to patient care to the ability to recruit like-minded care givers like her with a passion for rural medicine.
One questioner who asked how much more would be needed for MAHC to reconsider full-service at was told it would take $500 million more than the $1 billion the province’s Ministry of Health has allowed for the two hospitals.
“Well, you’d better go ask them for more,” the person said.
Philip Wah, CFO for the Royale Muskoka, was given a number to speak and he added further to his earlier comments at Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, saying he wanted more transparency around site decisions (which rejected their property) and challenging costing estimates that were used to finalize the Made-in-Muskoka model.
Gary Froude, of Port Carling, was the last speak.
The 75-year-old, who has been a more frequent hospital user in Bracebridge, fell ill from a mysterious virus in 2013 that left him paralyzed and in need of full-time care that he still struggles to get.
He rolled up in his wheelchair and called the split in beds with more in Huntsville “ridiculous.”
The board model, he said, is not as innovative as it claims. And that the board didn’t consult the public broadly enough in advance.
To him “it’s a done deal.”
A second possible meeting is still being considered in Bracebridge after an equal number of people were left standing outside when the doors were locked on them when 300+ were allowed in to the Sportsplex community room to be seated. (About three dozen did manage to get in later to stand at the back.)
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