I am a POOCH

Dave Gray was an unlikely revolutionary. Born and raised on a rain-sodden farm on the west coast of Scotland at war and enduring the gruelling hardship that followed, Dave was, nonetheless, a gentle character. He also had a passionate streak that ran to his core.

The seventeen-year-old arrived in Toronto with his parents and three sisters on a summer’s day in 1957. He put his head down and went to work. On a farm. Delivering milk. He drove a bus for decades. He navigated difficult family challenges. He had odd interests (wee tractors and Canadian Tire coupons?). And a simmering temper that occasionally got the better of him.

But he was not an obvious radical. Not your typical activist. Yet, there he was on this spring day in 2013, sitting in a meeting with the Minister of Health, Deb Matthews, at Queen’s Park—insisting on behalf of all County residents that Quinte Health Care (QHC) stop cutting services to Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital (PECMH).

On this day, Dave organized a protest at Queen’s Park—four busloads of enthusiastic and determined folks from across the County—loudly and cheerfully expressing their demand for the end of the slow but steady erasure of their local hospital.

Since the province had amalgamated the Picton Hospital with those in Belleville, Bancroft and Trenton in 1998, funding and resources were systematically drained from Picton and Trenton to support BGH. Picton hospital had 42 beds when it was pushed into the arrangement with QHC. Beds and services began leaking away almost immediately. Every couple of years, the hospital corporation faced another funding challenge resulting in more services being cut from Picton and Trenton. By 2013 just 12 beds remained at PECMH. Two young doctors departed when maternity and obstetrics care services were eliminated from Picton. Consultants urged closing PECMH altogether.

Rage in this community seethed with every cut to PECMH. More than 1,000 folks filled the community hall in Picton in September of 2005—folks sitting on the floor, spilling out onto the parking lot. Meanwhile, a procession of administrators and consultants came and went through the hospital corporation as residents and leaders in Picton and Trenton fought to save their hospitals.

By 2012, Dave Gray, an avid and pointed letter writer, had become an activist. QHC was signalling yet more cuts coming to the Picton Hospital.

He created POOCH— Patrons of Our County Hospital. He organized meetings. Raised money. Sold POOCH buttons. Pestered politicians and decision- makers.

None of it seemed to make a difference. Queen’s Park knew turmoil was still swirling between the four hospitals that comprised QHC. In 2009, it took the drastic step of dismissing the board and appointing a supervisor to quell the tumult. Yet the cuts to PECMH kept coming. Drip by drip.

Dave felt that unless County residents took the fight to Queen’s Park, the Picton hospital might be squeezed out of existence.

So on this sunny spring day in April 2013, four large buses rolled up to the steps of Queen’s Park from Prince Edward County. An hour into the protest, an emissary emerged to say that the minister would meet a delegation of the protesters. Dave was joined in that face-to-face meeting by Leo Finnegan, the former mayor and lifelong advocate for Picton hospital, along with Wolf Braun, Willem Maas and Al Reimers.

Finnegan did most of the speaking—he had been making the case for PECMH for decades. While Dave had led the protest, he was more of a doer than a talker. The group later met with PC health critic Christine Elliott.

Dave felt they had received a good hearing from the minister. Nothing was promised, but they had expressed the depth of passion this community felt for Picton hospital— that the minister and her staff understood County residents would fight for their hospital, forever.

There were other protests, more packed meetings, and more sessions with QHC and ministry officials. But that spring afternoon in 2013 was the day POOCH barked loudest. Dave Gray had done this.

Humble yet fiercely proud, Dave had taken the fight to save PECMH to Queen’s Park. An unlikely revolutionary. Dave passed away on January 23rd.

That there is still a hospital in Picton, and a new one in the works, is due in no small part to his passion for PECMH.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca