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Comment
EXPANDING
POPULATION -
DWINDLING SERVICES
What does the Peer Review Report
mean for the people of Ajax, Pickering, Whitby and West Durham?
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC)
has required all hospitals to submit a balanced budget for the 2007/08
fiscal year (April 1/07 – March 31/08) Hospital Accountability Agreement
(HAA).
Gross Financial Mismanagement
Rouge Valley Health System (RVHS) has been grossly
mismanaged financially for the past 6 years.
“Management has not been required to live within their means and
cost overruns have been tolerated.”1
RVHS now has an
accumulated deficit of $33.8 million.
For the 2007/08 fiscal year, RVHS submitted a deficit
budget of $12.1 million. Therefore
the Central East Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN) ordered a Peer
Review of RVHS to assist in achieving a balanced budget for 2007/08.
Source of Deficit Unexplained
Surprisingly, the Peer Review Team gave no indication
as to exactly where the deficit comes from, yet they recommended no
increase in base funding. They
have instead made 28 recommendations to assist RVHS in achieving a
balanced budget for this and subsequent years.
One of the recommendations is to cut services that are unfunded by
the MOHLTC (i.e. services that are not funded at all or those that are
operating above the funded level.)
The unfunded services at Centenary Health Centre (CHC)
include:
By eliminating these unfunded services most of
the deficit could be eliminated.
Service Cuts at A-P Not a
Solution
Another recommendation is consolidation of services
to CHC as a cost saving measure. Simply
moving services to one site and maintaining the same volumes saves very
little money, if any at all, only reducing volumes (cutting services)
does. Cutting services is of
great concern to the residents of Ajax, Pickering, Whitby and West Durham.
If the two hospitals, APH and CHC, were adjacent to
each other, as are several of the hospitals on University Avenue in
Toronto, consolidating some services might make sense.
However, APH is located 23 kms from CHC along one of the busiest
highways (401) in North America where the traffic volume is increasing by
15% per year and gridlock is a daily occurrence.
Even alternate routes such as Hwy 2 become jammed once the 401
becomes unuseable for any period of time.
If public transportation was available, and it is not, such a mode
of travel would not be feasible or acceptable for the ill, the infirm or
seniors. Transferring sick
patients that distance on a regular basis poses a major safety issue.
New Emergency Department
Requires Support Services
APH has an Emergency Department built for 20,000
visits per year, yet last year there were 45,000 visits.
Construction, long overdue, has just started on a brand new
Emergency Department for 60,000 visits a year, projected for completion in
2010.
An Emergency Department of this size, with these
volumes, requires on site support of the following essential services:
-
Intensive
Care
-
Diagnostic
Imaging (including MRI)
-
Anaesthesia
-
Medicine
– General, Cardiology, Respirology and Gastroenterology
-
Surgery
– General, Orthopedics, Plastics, Otolaryngology, Urology,
Gynecology
-
Labour
& Delivery – Obstetrics
-
Child
Health Unit – Paediatrics
-
Mental
Health
-
Rehabilitation
Short and Long Term - Neuro.,
Ortho., Medical.
Hospital services do not operate in a vacuum
– medical specialists, surgical specialists, obstetricians and
paediatricians interact daily and depend on each other for help in
difficult situations. These
essential services must be available on site to provide safe,
comprehensive and quality medical care.
Without the support of these essential services on
site, the Emergency Department becomes simply an “Urgent Care Clinic”.
Anyone with a more serious illness must be transferred by ambulance
to CHC. This scenario is
totally unacceptable for the residents of Ajax, Pickering, Whitby and West
Durham.
Taxpayers' Voices Quieted
Good governance is a continuing concern.
Currently all new Board members are screened and selected by the
Executive Committee according to their skill set and their willingness to
support the Board’s views. These
nominees are then presented at the annual meeting for rubber-stamping.
This autocratic selection method creates a unified
Board but one that is homogeneous with little, if any, opposition.
In a democracy, dissenting opinions are not only tolerated but also
encouraged.
The hospital is a public institution paid for by our
tax dollars and donations. Any
member of the public has the right to join the hospital corporation and
should be allowed to be nominated and elected at the annual meeting. That is a basic tenet of our democracy. Only then will we have assurance that the community’s views
are well represented and our services protected.
Surging population in Ajax, Pickering, Whitby and
West Durham requires augmentation of services not the reduction or
transfer of services. If
taxpayers do not get involved they will lose essential medical and
surgical services at the Ajax Pickering Hospital.
It is urgent that you contact your local MPP and the Chair of the
Central East LHIN.
Lynne Childerhouse, Morgan Dever, Bill Parish on
behalf of The Friends of the Ajax Pickering Hospital
1 Peer Review Report, page 15
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