POOCHed

I have, until now, avoided writing about the erosion and potential disappearance of our local hospital. I’ve skirted the big issue, not because I don’t care, but because I do care and I don’t want to misstep. Do you know what I mean? My reasons for maintaining and supporting our local hospital as a vital part of our community are more personal than political. I’ll bet dollars to duodenums there isn’t an adult living in the County who doesn’t have something favourable to say about Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital. Yup, that’s what I called it, Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital and often, Picton Hospital. I am sickened by the name Quinte Health Care. Every time I encounter the terms “QHC” or “Quinte Health Care,” I get just a little bit annoyed and feel nauseous. I truly believe our community was sold a “bill of goods” as regards the worth of amalgamation of hospital services. I’ve been here long enough to know what our hospital really means to all of us.

Our hospital, in Picton, is the real hub of this community. Personally, it is the place where two of my children were born. Both children were delivered by doctors who were not just medical professionals, but neighbours and friends. (Known for labours of less than two hours, I wouldn’t have made it to Belleville for a safe delivery of those children. I would have been admitted days in advance—wasting health care dollars.) The doctors who delivered my children were assisted and attended by nursing staff who fall into the same categories— medical professionals, neighbours and friends. The entire staff, from the front doors to the back parking lot and from the basement to the rooftop, is made up of people we all know, either closely or as nodding acquaintance. At the heart of this creative, entrepreneurial community is our health-caring and comfort-giving hospital. It isn’t a “system.” As partners and residents in this community, we gave and continue to give—from the bottom of our hearts and the depths of our wallets—to build and maintain a hospital for us, the people of Prince Edward County. We didn’t ask that our hospital be absorbed into; blended with; incorporated with; integrated with; infused with; jumbled into; conglomerated with or coalesced with that throbbing, sterile “system” referred to as the Quinte Health Care Corporation. Sometimes it’s hard to get an amalgamation right. No, let me rephrase that, it isn’t hard to get an amalgamation wrong.

In the big scheme of great community future planning, there is a place and a need for lots of basics including access to our heritage and culture; public transportation and safe roads; public safety and policing services; parks and public spaces: good, affordable, safe housing; efficient and environmentally sound land use; economic sustainability; community facilities and access to community health care services and health care professionals. Good planning which, in my personal opinion, includes a functioning hospital, creates a sense of place, promotes economic development, fosters growth, protects precious resources and saves money. The Picton Hospital, in the past, was the poster child for all of those good planning things. Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital once was a health care facility that was accountable to its community. Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital once was accessible by its community. PECMH once provided comfort and care on a level that could only be envied by places like Belleville. PECMH wasn’t a comfort stop on the way to another facility. It was a place of diagnostics, surgery, treatment, therapy and caring.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca