Hospital merger opponents planning rally Monday in Lindsay
Opponents of the proposed merger of Peterborough Regional Health Centre and the Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay took part in a Ontario Health Coalition rally Tuesday at Queen’s Park and are planning a rally of their own on Monday in Lindsay.
The Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition has scheduled the Rally for Ross for Monday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lindsay hospital at Kent and Angeline streets.
Executives at both hospitals have proposed the administrative merger, with the two hospitals continuing to operate with two sites but with more shared services, to the Central East Local Health Integration Network, which oversees PRHC and the Ross.
The hospitals held several public consultation meetings on the merger over the summer, but postponed a consultation meeting for Lindsay that had been scheduled for Aug. 29 at the Ross.
A final decision has to be approved by both PRHC and Ross boards, the board of directors for the LHIN and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
Bonnie Kennedy, co-chairwoman of the Kawartha Lakes Health Care Coalition with Barbara Doyle and Zack Miller, said the local group decided to join other Ontario Health Coalition chapters at the Queen’s Park rally following meetings led by the Ontario Health Coalition regarding the proposed merger of Ross Memorial Hospital and the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
“We decided we wanted to be more vocal about what is not only happening to health care in Ontario, but also our community hospital,” Kennedy said.
“We just want to ensure that the residents of the City of Kawartha Lakes have access to the programs they have now. This is a large area with many residents who have acute care needs. There is no public transportation and we don’t need to lose any programs. We need our hospital.”
Members of the Peterborough Health Coalition also journeyed to Toronto for the Queen’s Park to express their concerns about the potential privatization of some parts of Ontario health care now that Premier Doug Ford’s new Progressive Conservative government is conducting a provincial review of the province’s health system.
Kennedy said City of Kawartha Lakes residents have worked hard to raise funds for the Lindsay hospital — the province does not provide funding for equipment such as the recently installed new automated X-ray systems — donating several million dollars over the past decade.
“We definitely have a vested interest in this (merger) because we’re all consumers of health care at some point,” Kennedy said.
“How do you attract family doctors without a functioning hospital? And what about young families? We have to keep the community growing ... And it’s also about our children and our grandchildren. We doing this for their future. No one wants to see it [health care] eroded away.”
The Ontario Health Coalition is calling on the provincial government to live up to its pre-election promises to “end hallway medicine” and improve mental health resources.
Group members hoped the Toronto rally — that saw 90 busloads of concerned residents descend on the Legislature’s grounds — would send a message that the government should restore closed hospital beds, improve hospital, long-term and mental health care and reinvest in frontline services.
The City of Kawartha Lakes group will continue to meet to discuss “next steps” over the coming weeks, Kennedy said.
According to a directional plan submitted to the LHIN in June, the merger between the Lindsay and Peterborough hospitals is slated to begin in January.
NOTE: Anyone interested in learning more about the Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition can visit the group’s Facebook page, email kawarthalakeshealthcoalition@gmail.com or call 705-738-2617.