NO PROGRESS LAST NIGHT IN TALKS BETWEEN MAHC AND DOCTORS; GUPTA CALLED IT ‘DISMAL’
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
MUSKOKA — Hopes for a hospitals solution closer to home were dashed last night when a virtual session between doctors and Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare ended in a stalemate.
The online call, convened by a MAHC facilitator, “went as expected,” said one doctor who was online when reached for comment this afternoon.
“It was dismal,” Dr. Rohit Gupta added when contacted.
“They had no intention to negotiate any further with us and told us that was the last meeting they plan to have with us,” said the first doctor said.
Said Gupta: “It was no dialogue at all (just) one way from administration. They just wanted to convey what they wanted and are stuck at 36 beds.”
Added the first doctor: “It was tightly controlled and the only way to ask questions was through a Q&A chat bar. They would be selective in who was allowed to speak and participants had to be ‘un-muted’ by the session facilitator to be able to speak.”
Gupta said there were “lots of doctors there, but no real communication.
“They did not let anyone speak freely. The meeting was conducted by a PA (public affairs) guy who was a very authoritarian dictator and (who) made fun of protesters in the park” at Saturday’s rally in Bracebridge.
“As such, we are going to go ahead and will release a combined letter updating the community on the meeting and our recommendations,” said the first doctor, “seeing as any further advocacy has to come from the community to affect any change. We are waiting on a few more physicians to confirm if they endorse the letter.”
Meanwhile, at the Utterson Community Hall where the meeting was to have been in person as in past, Dan Waters awaited any protesters who may not have gotten the message late Tuesday that MAHC had “backed out at the last minute” and to inform them of the change in meeting venue to virtual.
The Save South Muskoka Hospital grassroots member joked that the MAHC board was afraid of him and other supporters of the doctors’ plan.
“Because we old people, like me, we’re dangerous,” he said in a TikTok video post today.
“I’m very threatening in my present attire,” he said taking cover under the back-hatch of an SUV bearing a sign that read ‘MAHC: TRANSPARENT OR INVISIBLE?’
“But MAHC can’t face us, they gotta chicken out. They don’t want to face the doctors either, because that would mean they would have to say face-to-face what they could sneak through on a Zoom call.
“It’s just such a wonderful thing, that Zoom, you can say whatever you want, but you don’t have to actually face the people. And that’s MAHC’s way.”
Waters wrapped up the clip of just more than minute-and-a-half saying: “It’s just a wonderful day, the rain has stopped.
“But we had told people that we would be here just to line the street. So MAHC would see that no matter where they go people are concerned about our hospital. Not just our south Muskoka hospital. But the people of Huntsville are concerned; too, they’re going to have to go to Bracebridge for any little minor thing that would be day surgery or clinic.
“That’s MAHC’s way. We’ll just destroy the health system in Muskoka and then we’ll retire and move on.”
@danwaters
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMnVrq9u/
SSMH’s Dan Waters offered this commentary from Utterson. Click on the link.
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