Majority decision of hospital board replaces 1-hospital plan with 2-hospital plan after broad community advocacy efforts
MUSKOKA — Residents, it seems, can make a difference when they raise their voices.
Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare’s board of directors endorsed the MAHC capital plan development task force’s recommendation for two acute-care hospitals for the region’s long-term future on Aug. 10.
The decision overrides the board’s former support of one, centrally located hospital as part of its pre-capital submission in 2015.
“We really now have to bring the community together,” said Phil Matthews, board chair. “The submission that will go in (to the ministry) has got to demonstrate community support — and support for funding of the local share.
The task force presented its recommendation at a special board meeting held Aug. 8. The board met in closed session on Aug. 9 to discuss the recommendation and a majority decision led to an endorsement on Aug. 10.
Matthews noted the 25-member task force, which had broad membership that included area politicians and community members, presented a 30-page report on its recommendation to the board and demonstrated the two-acute-sites model was the best option — for a variety of reasons — for Muskoka’s future.
And he noted, community feedback loomed large in the latest decision.
“I would hope that it meets the requirements we heard from the community, municipal councillors and mayors, our member of parliament, our member of provincial parliament and our premier,” said Matthews. “They’ve all said this is what they want, so I would hope, now that they’ve got what they want, they’ll start thinking about how we fund it.”
The task force’s recommendation dealt with the first half of the Stage 1 capital planning process required by the ministry, which focused on a proposed service delivery model for hospital care in the region. Members would now shift their attention to physical design, siting, a fundraising plan and more, for the second half of that stage with deadline in 2019.
There were five stages to the ministry’s capital planning process.
Ministry rules state any new hospital build would require significant financial contributions from the community to cover equipment and furniture purchases as well as some of the construction costs.
Matthews, who also sat on the board in 2015, said there were no easy answers for any of the service delivery options proposed over the past seven years. But refreshed and expanded data used in the Stage 1 deliberations, along with more perspectives around the task force table and consideration of expanded scope and added services for the future, led to the decision shift.
The proposal, for example, would add 61 new in-patient beds to Muskoka and bring the total between the two sites to 157.
Some of those beds would be for stroke rehabilitation.
Other proposed service additions include a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, department.
Natalie Bubela, CEO for Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, said land-use planning information previously not considered also bolstered the argument against a single, centrally-located hospital, as area municipal, regional and provincial planning policies eschewed the creation of a hospital outside an urban centre.
And, she added, building one hospital in either Bracebridge or Huntsville would cause insurmountable travel time and health-care access issues for the other.
She noted, too, strong community support could move plans faster.
“Waiting 15 years is way too long for us,” she said. “So having good community support behind us, in terms of making sure we that we’re able to look after our community needs as we move into a growth rate and demand and volume increase in our emergency departments, (is important).”
She added the capital plan development process was a separate issue from ongoing operational funding advocacy efforts for medium-sized hospitals such as Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare.
“The main reasons we’re doing this is around providing safe, quality care for our communities and knowing that we’re anticipating a significant growth in demand on resources, and what’s available today will not hold us in good stead into the future,” she said. “So the capital planning we’re doing today is to make sure we have the appropriate infrastructure to care for the patients we’re anticipating and projecting will be coming through our doors.”
She said the Bracebridge and Huntsville hospitals were designed to provide care based on standards set 50 years ago.
“It’s not appropriate for the care we’re providing today or into the future. And as a result, we need to look at creating more space, abiding by infection control guidelines, looking at evidence-based guidelines,” she said. “How you pay for the operating costs is a very separate process not influencing our planning.”
She noted the provincial hospital funding formula would have had to change to better reflect the financial reality of medium-sized hospitals, regardless of the future service and infrastructure model chosen.
Alison Brownlee is a reporter with Muskokaregion.com She can be reached at abrownlee@metrolandnorthmedia.com
Written for Huntsville Forester