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Midland, Ont. The proposal to merge Midland’s Huronia District Hospital with the Catholic-run Penetanguishene General Hospital has been dropped due to community outcry.
Huronia’s trustees officially withdrew the merger idea at a special meeting of both hospitals’ boards last night. The merged hospital would have been run as a Catholic institution.
We are delighted that we have been given this temporary respite from cuts to health care services, said Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. Now we must pressure the provincial government to cover the hospital debt which we understand was caused by provincial restructuring in the first place.
At risk were reproductive health services such as abortion, vasectomies and other procedures. Many people were also concerned about the loss of services to gay and lesbian community members as well as end of life services.
The board pledged to create several task forces, including a community task force, to find solutions to the governance and financial challenges facing the hospital.
I commend the board’s commitment to involve the community in the next steps of this difficult process, said Debby Mink, Co-chair of the Midland Health Coalition. The board will need the community’s support to lobby health minister George Smitherman to provide the funding this community needs.
Mink said that this episode has reminded her community to be watchful of the changes that are taking place in the health care system under the new Local Health Integration Network, or LHIN.
We hope that, through all of this conflict, we have been able to show our LHIN and Mr. Smitherman how much we value our hospital, and that we are willing to rise up as a community to protect each and every health service.
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Contact:
Natalie Mehra, Director, Ontario Health Coalition, cell 416 230 6402 (Friday only)
Vern Edwards, Co-chair, Midland Health Coalition, 416 578 4258
Debby Mink, Co-chair, Midland Health Coalition, 705 549 5771
