The Capital Plan Development Task Force is expected to make a recommendation on a future hospital model to the hospital board sometime by the end of July, according to Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison.

Aitchison, who sits on the task force, provided the timeline at Huntsville Council’s May 28 meeting, following a query from Councillor Bob Stone.

Aitchison told Stone that a meeting had taken place that morning, where the task force reviewed a planning report that had been done on various different sites identified as potential locations for a hospital.

“Suffice to say the Huntsville hospital site is deemed to be very low-risk in terms of any potential planning issues. They could’ve saved thousands of dollars, I told them that from day one,” said the Mayor. He said the same is not the case with the existing location for the Bracebridge hospital.

“They identified a couple of other locations, one of which is a piece of property that the Town of Bracebridge has actually purchased an option on, which they have said they would make available… and they say that the planning issues with that are fairly low, as well.”

He said other properties outside of the Bracebridge area were examined as well, including one in the area of Hwy. 117 and Hwy. 11 “and they identified all those as non-starters because they’re outside of the urban area. They also identified Port Sydney as a bit of a non-starter because it’s a community settlement area and it doesn’t make sense in terms of planning matters,” added Aitchison.

“Effectively, what they found was all the things that [Bracebridge] Mayor Smith and I told them two years ago when we said ‘this doesn’t make sense because of planning reasons.’ Anyhow, that was our review today. We’re on the same page now, which is really great,” he added.

“My suspicion is that a recommendation will be made to the board by the end of July and then they will deal with that and let us know whenever they get to it, I guess,” said the Mayor, who described the review as a painful but thorough process.

The task force continues to review all hospital models. So far, the following three options have been identified:

Two Acute Sites: The Two Acute Sites model proposes to maintain acute care beds and Emergency Depts., general surgery, obstetrics and intensive care in two sites. These would be supported by other core diagnostic services and allied health and support services in both sites. Speciality surgeries and programs like Chemotherapy and Complex Continuing Care that are currently single sited are proposed to continue to be in one site only. The future model also proposes to add a Stroke Rehabilitation Unit and MRI capabilities at one site.
Inpatient Site/Outpatient Site: The Outpatient/Inpatient model proposes to include Emergency Depts. at two sites and to separate outpatient and inpatient services between two sites. The Outpatient site would include services that do not require an overnight stay in hospital like endoscopies, x-rays and other diagnostic imaging, and services like chemotherapy and dialysis. The Inpatient site would include all hospital beds, surgical services, obstetrics, and intensive care, and would be supported by other core diagnostic services and allied health and support services in both sites. The Inpatient site also proposes the addition of a Stroke Rehabilitation Unit and MRI capabilities.
One Site: The One Site model proposes to provide all programs and services on a single site, including the addition of a Stroke Rehabilitation Unit and MRI capabilities.