Passion

POOCH founder Dave Gray addresses the gathering at the Picton Legion hall on Thursday. Joining him at the head table are (L-R) Mayor Robert Quaiff, PECMH Foundation chair Leo Finnegan, LHIN CEO Paul Huras and MPP Todd Smith. To Gray’s left is POOCH chair George McNabb.

Hospital meeting fills Legion hall

Despite a cold, dark night best suited for hibernation, County residents emerged from their homes by the dozens last Thursday to speak up for Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital (PECMH). The chairs of the Picton Legion hall were fully occupied, the back wall and doorways were lined with folks eager to lend support for their hospital.

There were politicians, both provincial and municipal. There were members of the activist group, Patrons of Our County Hospital (POOCH), that had organized the meeting. Present too were members of the hospital foundation, the hospital auxilliary and the muncipality’s healthcare advisory committee. Paul Huras, chief of the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) was there to explain the issues from the regional funding organization.

But, alas, no Quinte Health Care (QHC) representatives were present. No one from the hospital corporation was there to hear the voices worried about the fate of a community hospital, waiting to learn how it will be affected by a $12 million cut to QHC’s budget.

QHC won’t say how it intends to balance its budget, or what services will be cut in order to meet this requirement, until March or April.

Clearly many in Legion hall last week—and in the broader community—are nervous about what these cuts will mean to PECMH. Experience has shown that when QHC finances are squeezed, services and capacity at PECMH are cut deeper and disproportionately.

One resident said she envied her recently deceased husband and the care he received—the diabetes clinic, rehabilitation and blood transfusions— at PECMH. She worries these services will eventually disappear in this community and won’t be available when she needs them.

“This hospital is a jewel,” she said. “You talk about a new hospital in eight or 10 years—will there be anything left to go into it?”

The point was made by several residents— wary of discussion of a new hospital perhaps a decade or more away—when seemingly each year services, beds and programs are eliminated from the local hospital. Others pressed for a definition of a viable hospital.

Huras, however, committed to the gathering that the new hospital, when and if it is built, will consist of at least 12 in-patient beds—the same capacity currently at PECMH.

He said he has lobbied the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care to ensure it got in the queue. The early feedback from the ministry wasn’t postive.

“I talked to the Family Health Team, QHC and health care advocates in this community,” said Huras. “We persuaded the ministry that this needed to happen. I expect this hospital will be built.”

Huras also explained that the ministry’s cur-rent funding model poses a significant chal-lenge to QHC’s ability to balance its budget. He says the hospital corporation’s cost structuresare out of line with its peers—more than canbe accounted for by its four-site configuration. He added QHC’s problems are likely to com-pound until they bring these costs in line withother hospitals its size.

Earlier in the meeting, MPP Todd Smith an-nounced that a decision excluding PECMH froma new funding purse for small and rural hospi-tals had been reversed. Both Smith and Hurashad appealed to the Ministry of Health after ithad ruled late last year that the County hospi-tal wasn’t far enough away from BGH to qualify for this funding. They pointed to an error in the ministry’s calculation. Ministry officials acknowledged the error, corrected it and confirmed funding for seven projects at PECMH.

Smith had hoped health minister Eric Hoskins might make the announcement himself in this community, but just a few days ago his office indicated that couldn’t be arranged.

Mayor Robert Quaiff, meanwhile, is hopeful of getting a meeting with Hoskins when a delegation of council attends the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto next week.

“We are hoping to impress upon the ministry that we are doing everything we can to support a new hospital,” said Quaiff. “If we are respectful, perhaps we win that commitment.”

On that hopeful note, the gathering dispersed back into the cold night.