Public meeting on future hospital planning draws more than 100 people
MUSKOKA — There was one comment that seemed to always earn animated applause.
“We need an acute care hospital in both Huntsville and Bracebridge,” said Mary Spring, a Lake of Bays resident, after telling a heart-wrenching tale of a nail-biting car ride from a rural home to the hospital emergency department in northern Muskoka, as the crowd of more than 100 burst into applause yet again.
She was the last of 16 speakers, who, along with more than 40 letter writers, submitted comment to the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare capital plan development task force during a public meeting on future hospital planning held at the District of Muskoka offices in Bracebridge on March 1.
And others spoke of similar tales racing toward the emergency department in south Muskoka.
Her comments echoed those of all the speakers — that the task force responsible for eventually recommending a future hospital infrastructure and services model for the two-hospital region should stop considering a single-hospital option for Muskoka.
Speakers included residents, municipal representatives, business owners and more from across Muskoka and East Parry Sound as well as a few representatives of health-care advocacy organizations from across Ontario.
The roughly two-hour-and-40-minute evening meeting, initially meant to be live-streamed using the District of Muskoka council chamber webcasting technology until audio difficulties thwarted those efforts, saw several other themes emerge from the speakers’ comments, too, beyond broad support for retaining and upgrading the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital and Huntsville District Memorial Hospital rather than rebuilding a new centrally located one.
Another included residents’ demands for hospital leaders to spend their energy petitioning the province for more hospital funding and a better funding formula for medium-sized hospitals, rather than using underfunding as justification for considering a single-hospital model.
De-amalgamation of the two hospitals was referenced more than once. As were concerns about closed-door task force meetings.
Cameron Renwick, a hospital board member and chair for the task force, said he was pleased with the turnout for the meeting and he appreciated those who took the time to attend, write or speak.
“That’s really what the task force wanted,” said Renwick.
He noted early the purpose of the meeting was not to debate the speakers, but to listen as a means to informing part of the task force’s ongoing discussions.
And he said the comments shared verbally and in writing would be complied for the task force members to review in full at their next meeting later in March.
Find more on this story in future on muskokaregion.com.
Alison Brownlee Bracebridge Examiner