Every time services are reduced or eliminated from rural hospitals, it becomes a hidden and direct increase in taxes to the citizens in rural communities:
– Patients now must travel farther for required treatments, some cases very far.
– Small communities, find it more difficult to attract new industry.
– Communities lose the ability to attract medical professionals. As a result rural patients must travel farther for required consultation and for medical procedures at great personal expense.
– Small community home owners see devaluation of residential properties.
– Members of an aging population are forced to travel at a time when they are physically, psychologically and financially less capable.
Available public transit for patients is infrequent. Reliance on volunteer drivers is not certain. The use of ambulance or patient transfer service is costly.
Many of these small hospitals were funded and built by the local citizens in order to avoid all the uncertainty and to have basic fundamental services provided locally. However, with the changes in the administration of health services, many of these hospitals have been eliminated either totally or drastically down-sized.
Many of the decisions started by the previous Conservative provincial government, are further escalated by the current Liberal regime.
An example is the Sydenham District Hospital in Wallaceburg.
The original structure was built in the 1950’s through a huge community effort, directly and indirectly through contributions, even by prearranged pay deductions. In the community reorganization by the Harris Conservatives, local hospitals were encouraged to amalgamate in order to decrease costs. As a result, major and minor decisions related patient activities and building maintenance, became the responsibilities of bureaucrats and not by the local stakeholders.
The 120-bed structure, built according to building codes of the time, showing gross lack of routine maintenance, has had services curtailed to just an Emergency Service Department with the five remaining beds.
Medical equipment, including the hospital beds, all paid for by local fund raising, have been moved out of the SDH, supposedly relocated at the Chatham site 25 km from Wallaceburg and much farther for those living on Walpole Island and St. Clair Township of South Lambton.
A “pipe-dream” of a new modern structure conceived at a cost of $65 to $75 million has been proposed.
This “Imagine” Project, subject to government approval, may never see the light of day. If it goes through, the local citizens will be required to raise at least $20 million, from a community whose biggest employer is Community Living!
If a real increase in general taxation is needed to fund health services, it should not be at the expense of a smaller community hospitals such as the Sydenham District Hospital. There needs to be a fair distribution of the real cost for all patients.
It adds insult to injury when rural communities have a greater burden of hidden costs, when they lose their local services, and when they are forced to seek health care in mega hospital centres for their basic health needs.
– Michael S. Zell, Wallaceburg
I fully agree with the statements made here. If the Erie St.Clair Local Health Integration Network ( Now isn’t that a mouth full of bull S), was eliminated there would be thousands upon thousands of dollars for upfront medical use. There is way to many bureaucrats drawing outlandish wages from the tax money, that are not needed for the operations of our health care system.