OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to LETTER: OSMH paid memberships should become 'obsolete' published Feb. 19.
We are very fortunate in Canada where we have the opportunity to voice our opinion on various issues on our public media platforms. This is true democracy at work.
Mr. Weedon has clearly stated his position on the current issue in our community regarding Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital paid memberships.
In Orillia at our Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, we are fortunate to have a visionary CEO and dedicated staff, working towards providing exceptional health care under extremely challenging conditions related to staffing and infrastructure challenges.
We have an extremely qualified hospital board which has been appointed through the “skills-based best practice process” favoured by the Ministry of Health.
This has been the process in Orillia at least since 2007 when I joined the hospital board, and spent nine years serving the community.
The board, after all, is accountable to the community at large currently represented by the paid memberships and provides foresight, hindsight and insight to the hospital CEO and operations.
The performance of the hospital is accountable to the board. Mr. Weedon suggests that we are saddled with an “obsolete PCMGM” (paid corporate membership governance model), compared to neighbouring communities, and this may be an impediment to Orillia’s aspirations for a new hospital.
He questions the membership’s competence, time and dedication.
Orillia’s ability to get to the next stage in its hospital planning journey is not being impeded in any way by the current community membership of the hospital. The reality of the current situation is that there is limited funding available, and the last major hospital approval for $1 billion has recently happened in Brantford.
Only the board can explain, to the community at large, exactly where we are in our journey, explain what we are looking to build and where, and of course how much financial support will be expected from the community.
With this challenge before the hospital and board, may I suggest we should be on a journey to expand our hospital membership to show the Ministry the strong community commitment that exists to support the agenda of the board and hospital.
Who could challenge the commitment of this community’s support of the hospital and board if 10 per cent of our population (approximately 3,400 people) had memberships to our hospital, let alone the $87,500 that would bring into the hands of the hospital to support its ongoing financial challenges?
There is no “bogey man” in the room within the hospital membership, and the current path that the board is taking suggests that once the elimination of paid memberships is a reality, things will run a lot smoother at the hospital and a new hospital will be a “slam dunk.” Really?
Those of us who are hospital members want to work together with the hospital to improve our community's deliverance of health care, and we all contribute financially to the hospital’s needs.
May I suggest to the board: you have had the strong support and respect of the community up to this point. This current pathway that you have chosen is splitting the community, and although there are only 400 plus paid members currently, we do represent a much larger population that is watching this scenario unfold.
We do not want to see the divisiveness in this community that was experienced back in 2007. The voting at the special meeting will tell the story.
Paul Leskew
Orillia
