MUSKOKA — One hospital in Muskoka? Maybe not.

Evelyn Brown, board chair for Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC), spoke with muskokaregion.com following a comment she made as she and MAHC CEO Natalie Bubela made the rounds to area municipal councils to update regional political leaders on the progress of long-term planning for hospital infrastructure here.

“Although the board made the one-site decision, the world has shifted,” Brown told Town of Huntsville council members at their meeting on July 24. The decision launched protests and rallies across Muskoka and East Parry Sound and led to a historic joint meeting between the Bracebridge and Huntsville town councils, both eager to find an alternative.

Brown told this newspaper the hospital board’s decision was part of its pre-capital submission to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, but as the process enters its first of five official planning stages in 2017, the debate begins anew with more voices around the table.

“The first step we are looking at, in as open-minded a way as we possibly can, is that the task force that will make a recommendation to the board has an extremely broad membership,” she said.

A 23-member task force, including hospital representatives, physicians, municipal representatives, regional government representatives and more, will meet monthly to discuss and debate future hospital service and infrastructure options before making a recommendation to the hospital board in March 2018.

The task force timeline is meant to align with the Muskoka and Area Health System Transformation (MAHST) council’s discussions around redesigning the entire health-care system in Muskoka.

“We have to have sustainable health care in Muskoka and it has to be at a quality that people have come to enjoy,” said Brown. “There are no preconceived notions. We’re going to be open-minded. And we hope the folks coming forward to represent the variety of communities at the table will also be open-minded.”