Did MAHC hear the voice of the community?
Some Muskoka residents likely watched YourTV’s recent Muskoka Matters show, Health Care in Muskoka. The show featured MAHC Capital Planning Task Force Chair Cameron Renwick, Vice Chair Don Mitchell and hospital CEO Natalie Bubela with interviewer Anthony Asturi. The interview took place just days following the Task Force’s March 1 meeting of public deputations/presentations. The meeting served to demonstrate to MAHC and its Task Force leadership the consensus view of all sixteen presentations, and the 100+ written submissions received to date that the community rejects the single site model, a wants to retain two full-service acute care hospital sites.
So was the people’s message listened to and understood by these Task Force representatives? After examining subsequent comments and some talking points from the YourTV show, we’re not confident that they did; however, time will tell.
Here are some concerning comments:
~ They said, “Community feedback has been essential,” but then they went on to say community support remains “an important component” and would be considered along with other criteria such as land-use planning and economic impacts. Perhaps MAHC and the Task Force’s prior commitments that community support is a must, has been marginalized to a component of many?
~ The interviewees made multiple references to public “misinformation” or “hear-say”, suggesting that the reliable source of information for the public was MAHC’s website. Here are several examples pointed to:
- The public is confusing timeframes of near term – what happens for the next 15 years and the long term of 15 + years. We believe most in the community are not satisfied with these timelines referred to by MAHC. The point MAHC seems to continue to misunderstand is the community wants significant investment & upgrades to the existing hospital sites sooner than 15 years. How is that expectation “misinformation”?
- Term “Mega hospital” having “no reality to that term.” The “Mega” term we believe was in reference to the substantial capital costs associated with one new site hospital project, last estimated at approximately $350M with a $84M+ local share (excluding significant site servicing costs). Most in the community realize funding this local share would constitute one of the largest single public debt commitments ever thrust on Muskoka taxpayers & hospital foundations. Also, for clarification, the proposed single site model would in fact be 28% bigger than the combined hospitals’ existing 236,000 gross sq. footage (as per MAHC’s Pre-Capital Submission Form, 2024-25 planning target time, on their web site). So, the term “Mega”, when put into a Muskoka context, is certainly a fair term to use, not “misinformation”.
~ We are being told that the Ministry requires “an exhaustive search” and “review all these things”. The interviewees stated this will include a detailed, criteria-based ranking/scoring methodology (similar to that used four years ago, we note) applied to all models. Astoundingly, seven months into the task force, the two-full acute care site model the community clearly wants has yet to be formally tabled as one of those models. Further, it was stated new factors were to be added, such as “a recommendation for repurposing of any facilities (i.e. hospitals) that are not going to be used”, plus other Ministry requirements/strategies (e.g. “Patients First”). All of this signals that an unnecessarily long-drawn-out process will continue, to year end, or perhaps even beyond. So, with MAHC into year seven of this journey, one wonders when the planning processes will yield positive community supported results? All the while, community confidence and trust erodes.
~ A stated next step was for the Task Force to respond to the March 1 presenter questions through a Q & A piece. This seems odd, given that there were so few questions coming from the presentations. Moreover, the presenters’ views were quite clear to the Task Force; consensus for two full service acute care sites. MAHC has since posted their Q&A’s. Our initial scan of them suggests they may have again missed the key community messages.
The YourTV interview unfortunately seemed premature, with responses somewhat disjointed and clearly lacking consensus input from the full Task Force membership. By clearly stating they didn’t hear any “surprises”, they appeared to miss or chose not to acknowledge the overwhelmingly clear message that the two-full service acute care sites – one in Huntsville and one in Bracebridge, is the people’s choice.
Sven Miglin, former MAHC director and Chair, member of the Huntsville Hospital Retention Committee, LHIN appointed MAHST Executive Committee member and respected local businessman’s, wrote a commentary for Huntsville Doppler titled, Why does the hospital redevelopment task force continue to work at odds with the wishes of the community?, it beautifully articulates what MAHC and its Task Force needs to clearly understand. For those who may have missed it, it’s worth a serious read. Here is the link.
Lastly, a new Facebook site called, LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE, MAHC! surfaced on March 15, and within six days had over 4600 members, and it is still growing! That is an overwhelmingly clear message being sent to MAHC and its board.
For more information, please visit http://cahhma.com/ and join us.
Authored by – Dave Wilkin, (former) MAHC director, retired bank & IT executive, CAHMA member and Ross Maund, (former) MAHC director, career health services corporate executive, CAHMA member