WAS HOSPITALS VOTE A ‘WIN-WIN?’ OR JUST A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com OPINION

MUSKOKA — Leave it to Beaver.

When Doug Ford dangled a billion bucks for hospital renewals here — following a bungled political battle over one or two sites — the premier told the locals to get their act together before coming back to him for the cash.

Sort it out yourself, even Health Minister Sylvia Jones said.

A short year later has that really happened?

MAHC board members, including Marni Dicker seen here before the meeting, voted to add 10 beds to SMMH paid for by MPP Graydon Smith.

This week’s MAHC vote adding 10 acute care beds at SMMH is being hailed as a “win-win” by its CEO and president Cheryl Harrison. Who also touts the advantages to south Muskoka with increased daily patient traffic as it will become the district’s day surgery super centre.

And to an extent it appears to have gotten the thumbs up from opposing south Muskoka doctors as well as the community activist group Save South Muskoka Hospital Group along with upper and lower tier municipal governments.

But all the back slapping and congratulatory letters add insult to injury.

Fourteen, 32, 46, 121 … does it really matter if the result isn’t what they honestly wanted — or as many in the south neck of the wood agree?

Or was this a bait and switch all along? A placebo to placate the plenty of perturbed?

Lowball and make south Muskoka feel good when the foundation of their community is ripped from the Heart of Muskoka.

Fact one: David didn’t beat Goliath; south Muskoka will lose 10 acute care beds when SMMH is rebuilt. Down to 46 from 56. Or so the plan stands today.

Fact two: Is the Stage 1:3 plan sustainable for the future growth of Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Port Carling? Or will those dwindling centres become part of the Greater Muskoka Huntsville Area (GMHA)?

Fact three: Despite valiant efforts, doctors were worn out — not unlike a 24-hour shift in ER. Almost all are fatigued with this unrelenting, tiresome process. And were having a hard time carrying on with their practices while fighting an uphill battle Royale.

Fact three: Both physicians and laudable SSMHG volunteers were outnumbered physically and financially. Public response was generally relatively weak mostly without hospital employees understandably and sensibly marching to save their jobs.

And the much vaunted Muskoka Lakes cottagers failed to put up and instead shut up when they were needed most. This was their November municipal election writ large. If they really cared about care closer to their summer home they would have spoken up.

Or is 46 what MAHC all along was prepared to offer after dropping the 14 bombshell?

Is it over? Is it part of the Ministry of Health, Ford and the province’s grand scheme to skip over south Muskoka by building housing and health care north in incremental steps via Vaughan, Barrie, Orillia and now Huntsville — and finally en route to deputy premier Vic Fedeli’s desperately in-need North Bay.

Board members agreed to move forward with its final proposal, which some groups still question, including the Gravenhurst and Muskoka Lakes chambers of commerce. Bracebridge’s counterpart couldn’t decide one way or the other to endorse the 46 beds, said Eric Daly.

Endorsements quickly came from MPP Graydon Smith patting himself on the back for ratchetting $50 million more out of the province. And as expected Huntsville mayor, Nancy Alcock.

Bracebridge Mayor Rick Maloney, Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz, SSMG chair Bruce Kruger and Green Party candidate Matt Richter were all equally effusive in their praise.

Richter, who did little in SMMH’s defence, could see this come back to haunt him at election time.

Not so the chambers of commerce in Gravenhurst and Muskoka Lakes who are still calling for 60 beds south of Port Sydney.

Eric Daly, vice president of Gravenhurst’s chamber, says MAHC’s latest proposal remains “greatly out of balance” in its attempts to contain the “fast growing stresses and strains” of zooming baby boom population change that will soon revolutionize Muskoka.

“Huntsville is over-bedded and Bracebridge under-bedded.”

He said he was “horrified” at the price of 10 new beds.

“That’s $4- to $5-million per bed.”

The ‘Cashylake.com’ business consultant said the estimated $1.5 billion cost is a “dreadful amount of money being thrown at construction.”

“Exorbitant,” he called it.

He also added that the latest talk he’s heard being discussed outside hospital circles — as a member of the SSMHG — is about the unfathomable cost to remediate the Pine Street land site for the south Muskoka hospital. Dan and Cindy Waters claim it could be up to $200 million. That number hasn’t been tested.

Daly says whatever it is — “$150 million could provide 30 more beds” — based on this week’s numbers.

He says the two south Muskoka chambers he speaks for will continue to meet next week and push for the full 60 beds south Muskoka doctors have long called for.

The Bracebridge chamber, he says, couldn’t agree in its support for the 46 beds.

A report by MAHC board chair Dave Uffelmann went over the rationale for its redevelopment committee’s recommendation that included several charts outlining aspects of how the two hospital sites would operate.

The Kahshe Lake resident and businessman says he and his board read in to the doctors’ Oct. 7 response of 46 beds that while they are relatively “encouraged” and optimistic with the new number, they still want what they want — which is more as stated in their Care Close to Home V.2 report.

Daly says he has met with Smith, district and hospital officials who contend outsourcing ALC beds from MAHC sites will help free up beds. If that ever happens, he says.

Meanwhile, Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Scott Aitchison didn’t say so, officially, but must be smiling.

The former Huntsville mayor, who was in a bitter row not that long ago with then Bracebridge mayor Smith over a one hospital location in south Muskoka, could yet have a further say in MAHC’s eventual rebuild.

Especially if his Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre becomes prime minister and Aitchison continues his ascent in the housing field he is championing. The federal government will in some way play a role in the construction cost of these hospitals.

But at what cost to the social, business and health of Muskoka?

Can this story be over?

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