Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner says Ontario has unspent billions it could spend on health care including Muskoka’s hospitals. He says the province ranks last in health care spending per capita in Canada. “We are the bottom.” The leader of the two-member party — as expected — waded in […]
GRAVENHURST — A 31-year-old Gravenhurst woman has been charged with mischief after a confrontation here February 3. Police say today that at 8:15 p.m. officers responded to an emergency call from a tenant residing in a duplex on First Street South, after a woman, who the caller believed may have been a guest from another […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — MPP Graydon Smith, who originally said he would address the public after all hospital meetings — but who instead addressed an angry hometown crowd in Bracebridge Tuesday night — released a formal statement this afternoon in which he reiterated what he said three days ago. Today he put that […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — After hundreds of the public here were locked out of an overflow meeting last week on a new Muskoka hospitals model, a second opportunity to talk about the plan will take place Monday. With capacity for 650 more to speak — double the number allowed last week. Muskoka Algonquin […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Debbie Thomson likes to keep an eye on things. She’s content to watch and observe. Let the others do the talking, says her husband Rob. But when she heard Town Crier Bruce Kruger announce the opening of the new Muskoka Alzheimer’s office at the north end of Manitoba Street, […]
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 […]
HUNTSVILLE — A pair of shoplifting complaints here have led to an additional charge of auto theft in York Region. Police say they arrested and charged two men after a report of a shoplifter February 6 at 9:20 a.m. Responding officers found the suspect at another local business where he was also suspected of shoplifting. […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Ten minutes into the meeting MAHC laid its cards on the table when CEO and president Cheryl Harrison said the province told them “Muskoka was fortunate” a few years ago just to keep two hospitals. A-hundred-and-10 minutes later MPP Graydon Smith doubled down — braking his own cone of […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — The ‘Heart of Muskoka’ — and surrounding communities — are a suffering a heart attack. Blood pressures in south Muskoka are soaring over a proposal the see as a flip of the bird to the long-time seat of district and government services. But is life changing and growing as […]
LETTER TO EDITOR: To Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare. I attended the meeting in Gravenhurst last Tuesday night at The Terry Fox Auditorium regarding the plans for the new hospitals in Muskoka. My name is Tom Irvine and I am a retired family physician having worked in Gravenhurst from 1975 until I retired as a member of The […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — The issue of “one hospital” was put to bed almost a decade ago. Or so Muskokans thought in 2015. Now it seems to be back on the table thanks to MAHC’s new future hospitals model. Two retired doctors here think it’s maybe not a bad idea. Dr. Richard (Danny) […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Some South Muskoka doctors have become more vocal after penning a letter of opposition to MAHC’s north-south hospitals divide. Even at SMMH physicians and nurses within aren’t holding back in discussing the issue when asked about it while taking care of patients. Others, too, aren’t hesitating to express their […]
Lois Cooper | MuskokaTODAY.com — OPINION We need two fully functioning hospitals in the Muskoka Algonquin area. The Province of Ontario does not agree and is pushing private health care. The Doug Ford Conservatives are slipping more private health care in to Muskoka Algonquin by taking away hospital beds. South Muskoka Memorial Hospital currently has […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com HUNTSVILLE — Bob Hutcheson, 97, has heard it all before. “We’ve done a lot planning and we’ve tried to get somewhere over the years with various forums and committees, all sorts of things around Muskoka. And this is the first time in 46 years that we’ve been offered an opportunity. And […]
Lois Cooper | MuskokaTODAY.com OPINION The Province of Ontario has been telling the people of Ontario for the past 50 years that the public health-care system is not sustainable. OPINION In 1974 the first cuts to hospital beds across the province took place by none other than Muskoka MPP and minister of health Frank Miller. It […]
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 […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Ontario Greens Leader Mike Schreiner will have his new deputy party leader, Matt Richter, with him Monday when he holds a Town Hall meeting here. The party says Richter, who nearly upset MPP Graydon Smith in the last provincial election, is “pleased to announce that Matt Richter has been […]
LETTER TO EDITOR: Re: North-south hospital divide Here is what I see. Muskoka can’t afford more than a BILLION DOLLARS for new hospitals. The healthcare model is changing to a DISPERSED MODEL. Muskoka wants TWO EQUAL HOSPITALS in Bracebridge and Huntsville. Current hospitals are filled with NON-CRITICAL ALC PATIENTS. Solution is THREE TRANSITIONAL-CARE facilities — […]
Lois Cooper | MuskokaTODAY.com OPINION Wouldn’t you vote for a politician who says I will raise your taxes and you will get the health care you need and want? Our municipal and district property taxes rise each year. We don’t start shouting in the streets. We know that if we want the roads plowed, kept in […]
Lois Cooper | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — You can’t afford it! You can’t afford it! You can’t afford it! That is the mantra of the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare board to the people attending the “chat” in Gravenhurst on Tuesday night. Well, yes, we can afford it, I say! The “it” being great health care and two […]