The Citizen, 2007-07-19, Page 6THE EDITOR,
Those of us who live
outside Goderich need to
support the Alexandra
Marine & General (AMG)
Hospital campaign for a
Huron County CT scanner. I
have not been a resident in
Goderich since 1976, but I
feel compelled to support this
needed regional health cause.
Its specific location no
longer matters.
We must try to be bigger
than some of our local
politicians – across Huron
County – who, regrettably,
can only see progress if it
happens within their own
corporate boundaries.
On the other hand, the
hospital boards for all of our
small hospitals have been
progressive and visionary.
They have been able to see
the larger, regional picture -
with or without the support
of the local councils.
Over the long haul, Huron
County council has almost
always supported regional
campaigns for hospital
capital equipment. The
members currently err in
their refusal to support the
AMG campaign. They are
really refusing to support the
Town of Goderich. That is
not the issue.
The long history of Huron
County support for hospital
capital equipment, such as
this scanner, has served to
eliminate the local bickering
about such costs, the benefit
of which overlaps municipal
boundaries. I hope the
mayors and reeves will give
sober second thought and
reconsider their recent
refusal.
The Ontario Ministry of
Health does not pay for
capital equipment such as
this scanner. Funds must be
raised locally. Any local
hospital that can afford to
divert operating funds to run
the equipment can do so. In
the Huron County case, the
only hospital that can seem to
do this is AMG.
For the benefit of Huron
County healthcare then, we
are obligated to support
them.
Ordinary citizens, the users
of the healthcare system,
need to help set the
healthcare directions. We
must talk to our local
councillors. They need to
understand that the in-
camera, closed door,
bickering about regional
services must stop. This is
not a competition between
towns, townships and
villages.
It’s about our general
health and well-being as a
community. The needs of the
ordinary residents of Huron
County must take precedence
over individual municipal
concerns.
The CT-scanner is but one
issue.
The same thing applies to
the development of family
health teams, water and
related services, annexation
and boundaries, land use
planning, economic
development, environmental
concerns, and any other
matter where benefits to real
citizens overlap existing
municipal boundaries. We
need genuine partnerships,
not partnerships of
convenience. Negotiations
and flexibility have to swing
both ways to find solutions of
mutual benefit – once again –
not to individual
municipalities, but to the
citizens at large.
Contact Gordon Hill,
Varna, at 519-233-3307 or
Willy Laurie, Central Huron,
at 519-482-9265 for more
information. Talk to your
local elected representatives
about starting to pull together
on this matter, and others, for
the benefit of our collective
community.
Sincerely,
Paul Carroll.
PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2007.Letter to the editorWriter urges councilto change its mind
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A real history lesson
Fossils of all shapes and sizes were on the agenda last Friday at Brussels
Library, which hosted a presentation by The Fossil Guy, Bob O’Donnell.
O’Donnell has been in the fossil game for 15 years and is still presenting at
libraries, schools and birthday parties. While each kid left with a lot more
knowledge of the years before them, they also left with a free shark’s tooth
fossil. (Shawn Loughlin photo)