Activists, doctors call for moratorium on Ont. hospital cuts, closings
 (Ont-Hospital-Cuts)
By Keith Leslie

THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO _ A panel set up by the Ontario government to review
health care services in rural and northern communities is
``nonsense'' because it won't stop hospitals from cutting services
or closing altogether, complain activists, local politicians and
doctors.

The Ontario Health Coalition, a coalition of community groups,
said the panel won't even ask the public about ways to provide
better services as many hospitals struggle with growing budget
deficits.

``Everybody understood that the panel would be an independent,
third party look at the policy direction of the government with
regard to the closures of small and rural hospitals, and we're
shocked to see a mandate that doesn't include that at all,'' said
spokeswoman Natalie Mehra.

``So it's nonsense.''

Ontario's 14 Local Health Integration Networks, or LHINs, will
still be able to close emergency rooms or even entire hospitals
before the panel reports next year, said Mehra.

``This process provides no direction for those communities as to
whether or not these hospitals can be closed now in order to meet
the short term budget imperatives or whether the government is going
to develop policies to explicitly protect them,'' she said.

Don McGugan, the mayor of Brooke-Alvinston near Sarnia, said the
government's panel needs to speak to the people that will be
affected by the health service cuts.

``If you set up a panel to look at rural and northern Ontario,
the least you should do out of courtesy is come and talk to the
people involved and ask 'what do you want','' said McGugan.

``Come and consult with us, and please just listen and hear real
stories.''

Rural residents don't expect full hospital services, but do need
emergency rooms and diagnostic procedures close to home, added
McGugan.

``Don't cut all the services and then say the hospital is not
viable,'' he warned. ``That's what they do.''

The Ontario Medical Association, the Ontario Health Coalition and
several local councils have called for a moratorium on cuts and
closures to hospitals until the panel completes its review next
year.

``It's only reasonable'' for the government to put a hold on
major restructuring of hospital services until the northern and
rural panel reports next year, said OMA president Dr. Suzanne
Strasberg.

Health Minister Deb Matthews said the government will hold public
consultations, but not until after the panel completes its review,
and she doesn't want to stop LHINs from taking steps now to deal
with budget deficits.

``I just think that we have to carry on, and the LHINs are well
aware of some of the challenges that are being faced right now,''
said Matthews.

``I don't want to say to the LHINs, 'time out, stop everything
you're doing.'''

The province created the LHINs to provide political cover for
unpopular decisions to reduce local health care services, said
McGugan.

``The LHINs are set up to protect the minister,'' he said.

Residents from the Muskoka-area communities of Burk's Falls,
Magnetawan and Sundridge visited the legislature last month to
deliver 6,700 signatures on petitions to save a local hospital from
closure.

They said the Ministry of Health has a duty to ensure local
hospitals stay open and cannot hide behind the LHINs or hospital
boards to avoid its responsibility.

Mehra said people in small communities are angry after seeing a
lot of money spent on consultants by eHealth Ontario while they lose
hospitals or vital health-care services close to home.

``People are looking at the billion dollars wasted on eHealth and
the exorbitant salaries for bureaucrats and local hospital
executives and they're outraged,'' said Mehra.

``I think the McGuinty government doesn't understand the extent
to which their health policy is off the rails in terms of the values
and priorities of the people of Ontario.''

Residents of Fort Erie and Port Colborne recently lost the
emergency rooms at their local hospitals, which the OHA said has
driven up wait times in nearby St. Catharines and Welland ERs to
more than seven hours.

The Ministry of Health says the average emergency room wait time
in Ontario for minor or uncomplicated conditions is 4.8 hours, while
the provincial target is four hours.

Some of the emergency rooms can be replaced with urgent care
centres that serve the ``vast majority'' of patients that would have
gone to the ER in the past, said Matthews.

``From what I understand, 97 per cent of the people who were
going to the emergency room in Fort Erie can actually be served at
the urgent care centre, and only three per cent of them actually
require the emergency service,'' the minister said.