AND THIS CCFHT PRIMARY CARE HEALTH SURVEY RESPONDENT SAYS …
Lois Cooper | MuskokaTODAY.com
MUSKOKA — On behalf of the Gravenhurst Health Hub, the Cottage Country Family Health Team (CCFHT) is asking south Muskoka community members about their primary care experiences.
They would appreciate you to take a few moments to share your experiences with primary care in South Muskoka.
They say “your honest feedback will help them understand what works well and where improvements are needed, ensuring the new Gravenhurst Health Hub is designed around the real needs of our community. Your insights are invaluable in shaping a health centre that truly serves you and your neighbours—thank you for helping us build better care, together.”
What do you want your primary experience to be like in South Muskoka?
Think about: What can be done to make your primary care experience in South Muskoka better?
For me …
- Expand Dynacare services at their clinic in Gravenhurst to serve those of us who have CCFHT care providers in Bracebridge so we can get our lab work done here instead of driving to Bracebridge.
We need better co-ordination between the clinics in Bracebridge and Gravenhurst.
For instance, the Gravenhurst clinic should provide service of accepting patient documents for Bracebridge.
This week a patient of the Bracebridge clinic had records to give to their doctor in Bracebridge and had to drive to Bracebridge to hand them in (and only managed to catch that clinic as it was open later Friday afternoon).
Better service would see such documents received in Gravenhurst and sent on to Bracebridge. Surely in 2025 this is possible.
- Also, have a better phone answering system. I make appointments in person as I seldom can get through to the clinic by telephone. Certainly not convenient.
Have longer service times daily. Closing at 2 p.m. on Fridays is not good service when thousands of people in south Muskoka are without a doctor or nurse practitioner.
Better evening service in needed.
It is very unhelpful when a patient needs attention and your staff will not even say where the evening clinic is being held.
Why are we not to be trusted with that information so we can at least plan our day to include a trip to whatever town the clinic is taking place?
And why not make appointments on a first-come, first-serve basis starting at say 10 a.m.? When I have an outbreak of shingles I need attention ASAP. Waiting until 5 p.m. and hoping I will get through before you cut off appointments for that evening — forcing me to go to the hospital emergency room — is not good service.
I am going to start using walk-in clinics if one is available.
- My primary care should also include keeping the current hospital in Bracebridge at the same site.
It appears that a lot of money has and will be spent foolishly.
If the existing building cannot be adapted for the future, then follow the lead of other communities and build a four-storey new hospital behind South Muskoka Memorial Hospital.
Take the current building down once the new hospital in operational.
Save lots of money and it is a lovely flat site.
The Town of Bracebridge owns more land where the old arena stood. This I am sure could be purchased to accommodate buildings for other medical services.
We must retain at least the same amount number of beds and expand service to south Muskoka.
We are growing, not declining.
We need to stand independent of Huntsville.
The first error was allowing the hospital boards to be amalgamated.
It has been downhill for south Muskoka from that point. Twenty years ago.
To take the survey click here.
Or contact Grace Urbanski gurbanski@ccfht.ca for more information about it.
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