June 15 - Statement delivered to Clarington Council June 15, 2009
The following statement was read by Dr. Tony Stone at Clarington Council on June 15, 2009. Representatives included Dr. Stone, Dr. Benj Fuller, Doug Allingham (Lakeridge Health Chair – Board of Trustees) and Kevin Empey (President & CEO)
Good evening Your Worship and Members of Council,
Thank you for the opportunity to address council regarding an issue which is very important to all of us – the health care of our community.
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the future of Lakeridge Health Bowmanville Hospital, and in particular, the future of its acute services. In fact, there has been some concern about the very future of Bowmanville Hospital.
I am here tonight to speak on behalf of Lakeridge Health. It feels good to say that.
We are pleased to inform you that the LH Board Chair, hospital senior representatives and Bowmanville physicians had a very open, frank and productive meeting this morning.
We believe we are moving forward in a renewed spirit of co-operation as the physicians and hospital administration come together to work on a plan for the future of services at LHB.
Physicians caring for our community and patients at Lakeridge Health Bowmanville understand and appreciate that healthcare is under significant pressure and Lakeridge Health continues to be underfunded. However, the productive, positive meeting this morning has renewed our optimism in a solution that will work for everyone involved.
This morning, we agreed on the following:
- The Lakeridge Health Board, management and LH Bowmanville physicians agree unequivocally that LH Bowmanville must continue as an acute care site with:
o 24 hour Emergency services.
o On-site internal medicine coverage
o On-site general surgical services
o A Special Care Unit to serve more acutely ill patients
Let me reiterate what was just said. Bowmanville Hospital will continue to provide the same quality service it currently provides. There will be no reduction of services. We want Council and the community to hear this clearly – no reduction in services.
We will also develop Telemedicine as a beneficial, additional tool to improve access to other specialists and sub-specialists.
- Working groups of physicians and hospital representatives have been established and will work together to ensure our hospital has stable specialist support at our site.
- Statements and words can be misunderstood, no matter their intent. Therefore, both sides have agreed that only joint communication will be provided to the public as our discussions continue. Although we understand the media, our political representatives and the public deserve timely information, the imperative of coming to agreement is too important to jeopardize through misunderstandings and unintentional interpretations. For this reason, it was agreed that only LH President and CEO Kevin Empey and I will be making public comments as discussions continue.
Both Lakeridge Health and the physicians who serve this community wish to thank Council, our communities, our Foundation and Regional representatives for their continual urging for the parties to come together.
We would also like to make a request of the community. We are moving forward with important redevelopment plans for Bowmanville Hospital. We would like to ask all the citizens of Clarington, all the service clubs of Clarington, all the Businesses of Clarington, and all the industry of Clarington to pledge your financial support for our Hospital Foundation as we move forward with much needed renovations to our hospital. Our hospital needs your support.