ALMAGUIN — Throughout the discussions on the future of health care in Muskoka, Burk’s Falls reeve Cathy Still has never lost faith that there would be a hospital in both Huntsville and Bracebridge.
So last week’s task force decision to recommend retaining two acute care centres in the region was “not a surprise to me,” Still said. “That’s the only alternative there could be. We’re special. Almaguin is a special area and we have to be taken into account.”
The recommendation of the task force is fully supported by the Muskoka Algonquin Health Care (MAHC) board and Still remains adamant that the province will be in agreement as well.
“If you look ahead, we have the MP, MPP, the premier, and the minister of health all saying they should keep two sites. The key thing to this is that the Almaguin Highlands couldn’t go to a hospital any further south,” she said.
South River Mayor Jim Coleman was also pleased with the recommendation.
“If they had recommended one site in Bracebridge, that would be absolutely useless for us in South River,” he said. “It’s much easier for people to travel to North Bay, then to go to Bracebridge, but there are a lot of people around here who use the Huntsville site and they are very happy to do so.”
Sundridge Mayor Lyle Hall told the News he was pleased that the task force and the board “heard what we said about travel times needing to be addressed. With the two site locations we’re going to have acute care within an hour’s drive of East Parry Sound.”
But Hall says South Almaguin residents’ health-care concerns are “not out of the woods considering this could be a 20-year process. It may prove to be too expensive to maintain those two systems.”
Hall continues to push for changes in the delivery of local health care that will mean the two proposed acute care facilities will be a more financially viable option for the Ontario government.
“What we need is system changes,” Hall said. “We need a walk in clinic between Huntsville and North Bay so (the acute care centres) don’t have to deal with the fish hooks and sprained ankles that they say are so bad in the funding system right now. Someone has to come forward and propose that.”
Hall believes that if the area family health teams in Huntsville, Burk’s Falls and Powassan worked together “we would reach the trigger point to put in a clinic,” and he feels this is something the area municipalities need to be championing.
The municipal coalition committee, Almaguin Saving Huntsville Hospital (of which Hall and Still are members) is also hoping to see more transitional beds established in the communities.
“The percentage capacity of transitional beds in Muskoka health-care hospitals last year was 105 per cent,” Hall said. “If we could find some way to get the lower level, lower funding care ALC (alternate level of care) beds transferred into the community, it would free up current beds for procedural and high care, which is better for their budget and bottom line. That’s another issue we’re trying to do something about.”
But no matter the changes of health-care delivery that may positively impact on the two site model, Still believes the most significant thing the 12 Almaguin municipalities that look to Muskoka for health-care can do is to “really step up to the plate now and start setting money aside.”
“We’ve all done it before when the North Bay Regional Health Centre was started,” she said. “We all contributed to that because a lot of people in this area go there for hip replacements and orthopedics. Well, those of us using the Huntsville hospital are going to have to help with this funding. I don’t think anyone should have a problem with that.”
While Still admits there are residents who think “it should be a provincial responsibility, if we want to see that hospital in Huntsville and keep it viable then we have to chip in and I don’t see anything wrong with that because we’ve done it for North Bay and for West Parry Sound Health Centre. There’s no way the foundation can raise this money alone.”
MAHC had originally estimated that the two acute care sites option would cost $475,479,414, through a combination of new builds and renovation.
Still intends to call a meeting to “rally the municipalities” behind the funding issue.
Councils of the municipalities of Joly, Sundridge, Ryerson, Strong, Magnetawan, Armour, Burk’s Falls, McMurrich-Monteith, McKellar, Kearney, Perry and South River are members of the coalition, and all consider themselves in the catchment area of the Huntsville hospital.
Coleman said he would be in favour of starting the funding discussions now.
“I know our council supported the two sites so we’re very pleased with the recommendation and would be willing to sit down and talk about contributing financially,” he said.
“The municipalities have to commit to funding now,” said Hall. “In Sundridge, we don’t have a budget for that, but in 2017 we finished paying $10,000 per year toward the North Bay Regional Health Centre. That was a 10-year commitment, so historically we have been able to do that.
“Sundridge is exactly half way between Huntsville and North Bay hospitals and we have allegiance to both. We want to be able to help both as much as we can, within a small community budget.”
Hall pointed out that the Huntsville hospital “takes care of the people here so it makes sense for us to reciprocate with funding.”
by Laurel J. Campbell
Laurel J. Campbell is freelance journalist based in North Bay.
Email: ljcampbell@live.ca
Published in the Almaguin News