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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1998-07-08, Page 57' • ha i Tines -Advocate, Jat y 8, 1998 • Page 5 COMMUnitYs res concerns about semces Doctors step in. to ill time slots "...it is extremely important that we all work together as a team..." Dear Editor: The nursing staff of South Huron Hospital would like to take this opportunity to thank those doctors, both local and out-of-town, who stepped in and worked long and busy hours in the emergency department to avoid further closures over the past week. Those who gave up their personal time were Doctors Peter Englert, Ming Lam, Wm. Steciuk from our area, and K. Woolnaugh'and Tom McDonaugh from Stratford' and London. We also wish to say a special thank you to Dr. Caroline Meyer. of London who very efficientfy covers the . emergency on numerous weekends and has now expressed an interest in doing 24 hour coverage on- • week days as well. During these very stressful times, of restructuring. - .downsizing, and economic pressures, itis extremely important that we all work together as 'item with the health of the Community as the core issue. We - must continue to work to keep $outh Huron Hospital open and functioning at all times. - Respectfully, South Huron Hospital nursing staff, A Day in - the Life ofa Rural Doctor "Who wants to work in a hostile environment" Dear Editor: - After readinglast' week's Exeter TA one would think that our local doctors are lazy inconsiderate physicians who don't care about our hospital and don't want to keep it open. How dare they not work the emergency room and cover every shift! Who do gase.,,they think they .are! "Is this some type of political stand by the doctors" says the Hospital Board Chair- - Well let me tell you about a day ,in the life of a ru- ral doctor. 7:30 A.M. ;phone calls to London specialists for consults 8:00 A.M. -see patients in the efiergericy. who \vant to get to work .on time -hospital rounds . • , 9-12 A.M. -office, seeing patients 12-1 P.M. -more patients in emergency • • 1-5 P.M. -office, more patients 5-6 P.M. -Emergency, more patients, pick up lab results 6-7 P.M. -Exeter Villa and house calls - 7-8P.M- Phone calls to patients Saturday 8--1 Exeter Villa, • Emergency, .paper= work, get caught up from the week • Sunday 12-3 paperwork, Exeter Villa, study time For 22 years- my husband has taken call and worked the Emergency, often every weekend, look- ing after this community. He was young and didn't mind working day and night. Sixty to seventy hour weekshave been common in our house for many years plus taking call on topof this. Remember when we were all young and keen and ready to take on the world. No mountain was too high! Perhaps we could say a word of thanks instead of -condemn- ing our doctors. No they are not trying to sabotage the hospital by not working. Our local doctors are aging (over 50) and can't- put in the hours they, use to. No young keen doctors seem to be here to fill the void. r . The hospital board states that only 3 of 93 shifts this month are being filled. IV; local•doctors-and 60 are being covered by out of town doctors. Does the Board not realize that most of those shifts were al= ready being covered.by our local doctors and these shifts were ones that were taken away from them by the hospital administrator::Why didn't the hospital try to fill the uncovered shifts instead! We have a doctor 'shortage -. The doctors have been telling the hospital for years that a crisis was looming.. We -need to address this problem. A few aging doctors covering the emergency this weekend 'is only a. band-aid solution until the next time. It doesn't bring in new youngdoctors to fill the void. .What can we do? • First, let's not throw stones! Who wants to work in A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT! Let's,build a medi- cal clinic to try and attract some new youngdoctors. People don't set up solo practices any more; it's a thing of the past. We need to actively .and aggres- sivelytry to recruit young doctors. Many towns are offering huge incentive packages and arecompeting with each other for doctor's services. Committees will have to be formed to attend job fares at medical schools to try and recruit for Exeter. Videos of. our. lovely town -and hospital -should be sent to all the medical schools and major hospitals to let doctors see small town 'living •at it'.s _best. Let's. get into the marketing game and -sell our town! .Let's work with other hospitals in Huron County and perhaps oper- - ate an emergency room on a rotating -basis. • - Let's 'get the government to change the licensing procedures so residents can come - back and work weekends again! They took away their general li- . cense so they can no longer_do general practice. Let's •make :our town and hospital a place where someone would want to come. Let's keep the doc- tors we already have.•If they feel unwanted what's to keep them here? •Maybe they could all rally and ti y -. to pick up an extra shift but it still doesn't solve the • problem. It only -uses up another band-aid on a fes- tering sore until the next shutdown. Condemning our -existing doctors, trying to,shame them:into covering every -shift because it's their civ- ic duty to 'the ;community is not the answer.- When you've already worked a 60 hour week plus worked a night you've felt like you have done your civic duty. 1 would like to see my husband at home help- ing pry kids with their homework or coaching their sport's teams but he can't, he's too busy looking after the health needs 'of this community., - 'We all care about keeping the hospital open but it .may have to take another form until the 'doctor shortage problem is. solved. - Let's work- together ! -Name- calling is a child's game! A Doctor's Wife Sharon Steciek • Everyone else is much easier to replace '"We rhust move towards joint solutions in consultation with the, local physicians in order to attract new- man -power and assist the ex- isting physicians in maintaining 'a healthy lifestyle." Dear Editor, Having read the recent account of the hospital board meeting concerning theemergency roam clos- ings, I feel compelledto write. 1 am appalled at the personal attacks on the local physicians as quoted in the paper. After eighteen years of personal and pro- fessional dealings with our local physicians, I know them to be a dedicated, caring and hard working group. It appears that there exists a terrible working relationship between the physicians and the board and administration of the hospital. Solutions can not be found in such an atmosphere of finger pointing and name Collins. Communities such as Seaford! and Clinton have managed to forge workable situii- tions and it seems unthinkable that Exeter is incapa- ble of doing the same. - • . We must'move towards joint solutions in'consul= Cation with the local 'physicians in order to attract new man -power and assist the existing physicians in' • - 'maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This may involve a commitment to a community health centre like Sea- forth's clinic and the implementation of other inno- vative ideas. The alternative is to further alienate our local physicians and possibly, be left with nosh- ing but an empty hospital with nicely decorated ex- ecutive offices: I for` one 'feel that the doctors are the e pensable individuals in this dispute; everyone else is much easier to replace. Bill McGregor Compromise needed to save school sports or Continued frompage 4 announces cutbacks so deep that the public sector unions cry bloody murder and threaten to strike or some other job action. The prov- ince lets the unions spread their rhetoric while they respond with their own. The beauty of the province's strategy is they let the situation go right down the chipper till the breaking point, then they offer a 'carrot' — a singlet concession or a set of them that makes the public sector and the population at large go, `Whew, that wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. • Everyone thanks their lucky stars for a more positive 'outcome than they thought would roll out while the Hams Tories got exactly what they aimed for. If the province shifted their tech- nique from an arrogant 'we always know better, this is the way it has to 'be' hard line to a softer ap- proach, teachers and other public servants- may be more inclined to listen. I propose a personality make over for. the provincial government. In- stead of the whip, how about a ca- ress? Instead of forcing a confron- tation, the province -Could say something to the effect of: 'We know you're working hard toward the betterment of society through teaching, and yes, you've already dealt with doing more with less. `But we need to find an addition- al S(put dollar figure here) across the board to balance the books so we all can experience a better, debt and deficit free future. `Please go back to the chalkboard and find some areas you can either chop some fat or become even more efficient. Everyone, including your government, must do their part. `Let's work together to make things grand for our children and grandchildren'. • No matter the ifs and buts and what should' bes, our educational system, as well as other public in- stitutions in Ontario will forever be changed by the Harrisgovernmerlt. Many of the changes are positive, but the way they are being institut- ed is (wavy handed and even cal- lous. - Teachers, their unions and the government, as well as the rest of the public and the private sector. should look to each other for help. If we are all -good citizens, a com- promise will be reached that will achieve the government's goals in education and other public sectors. People want to help. Parents want to volunteer. More partnerships be- tween the public and private sectors could go a long way to not only preserving school sports, music and art programs and a multitude of other soft services, it could better them. - It's time for all players to swal- low that pride, soften that hard stance and compromise. Let's recognize we have a cr4sis!. "People, being .what they are, do not get terribly excited about issues until they are directly and adversely affected" . Dear Editor: Probably most letters to 'the Editor aim to vent rather than inform, and, of.. course, we the readers - are either amused or aroused by (and most of the time, indifferent to) what is printed. This letter will, 'no doubt, contribute to that observation, but I would -like;thoughtful people to Lead and think about, what this letter has to say. . - - ' At the start, l am:tempted to suggest that this com- munity (all of the.TA reading area),owes the District _ Health Council's Task Force a sincere apology for its treatment of its members when -they visited Exet- er last year, and I, as one of the leaders of the -fight against the Task Force's proposal •,for drastically down -sizing South Huron -Hospital, think I should be embarrassed for the position we took and: the ar- rogance we demonstrated in even suggesting that we knew this community -better than they. After all, we proclaimed that WE could create a local solution ,that would keep the hospital open and reduce costs. What has happened? The hospital did 'close'. I, for one, have never heard of a hospital having to close temporarily, and for part of the May 24th week -end - the busiest time of the year for a resort area in southern Ontario to boot!! (Helen, instead of giving the hospital a grant, save some money and close the thing.) - - - - What do we do?First of all, as Canadians let's as- sign blame. Let's. go for the doctors (whom we all =know are overpaid and underworked). They have taken much out of the community; and -they owe us. Remember how they threatened us a couple of years ago until they got that astronomical sum for being • 'on-call' (you know, sleeping and getting paid for it). Let's' blame the hospital board. They are a weak- kneed bunch:of people who have no idea what's go- ing on and simply follow, the directions a the Ad- ministrator. While we're at it let's blame the Admin- .: istrator. He's another bureaucrat - whom- the doctors -cannot abide; he's probably the source of the con- -flict between the board and the doctors in the first place. Let's blame the Government; everybody else docs. • - - - In fact, if we want towallow in this sty, I could blame all of us who are short-sighted, unthinking or. even petty. Five years. ago, Reeve Bill Mickle and I approached the hospital with our concern that the future did not look good for South Huron Hospital and that we, as a Town Council, would be prepared • • to help in re:designing an appropriate function for health services in the area. If the offer, were taken to the board, it fell on deaf ears. (To be fair, perhaps we were premature in (ilia- sta.ia, but hind-sighttis . perfect:) -During the last election campaign, 1 stressed the need for creating a clinic in Exeter as oitr doctors were nearing the twilight years of their careers. My family and..l have been very/onunate- is see- ing that our medical needs have jwn met. Over the years, Mike Gans was• territicMt coming to -the house when my mother was- ill and rushing to the hospital when sow David was hit -by a -car. Bill Ste- - ciuk has to be one of the most caring 'professionals' I have ever met. Personally, Linda Steele, several , times, -and Dave Hodder,_once, treated me at very critical moments. The hospital staff have Ijeen ex- , ceptional in their_:care, thoughtfulness and humour. 1 expect that our medical needs will continue to be - met by -these folks; however I. know that many of you may -have had very different- experiencei-:and .. you are not as optimistic as 1. , But where do we go from here? -' People, being what they are, do not•get terribly ;ex- - - cited about issues until they are directly and ad- 'versely .affected. Well' folks, you are now directly and adversely affected! • _ - The point is, we do have valuable -resources; now how can we best use them? i will suggest again, that the community (now that's a tough one!) look at the function of the hospital as it should operate in the next'century. It cannot remain as it is now!! The Government would be foolish to throw more •moneyat us to maintain the status quo. Let's look at a clinic, based at the --hospital which willprovide emergency ser- vice, routine out-patient care, physiotherapy, blood analysis and most of all, offices for doctors. It costs a- great deal to set up an office and -establish a -prac- tice, and ready-made office space cduld be a great - incentive for attracting new doctors. We could make good use of the 'bricks and mortar' by -housing all these functions and, probably more in a building that • has ceased to be meaningful to `us and a source_ of- ridicule fridicule to others, - - It really is time to recognize that all of us who . care about our community have to become involved in a major way with the.decision-making process; -. and the local 'committees, boards -and councils must -. realize --that we have a crisis; they have to make changes in tiie way they conduct, business in their. planning for tomorrow. Yours truly, • Bruce Shaw Why is there such -a predicament? "Why did some of these people choose that profession?: Dear Editor,- - ' , I write as a copcerned citizen concerning our hos- pital medical coverage or lack thereof.- ' - - Wtiy is there such a predicament now? 1 don't think it happened overnight! . -- The doctors complained about being overworked. - Some of the doctors 'are only willing to see patients . between 9 a.m. and'.5' p.m. This excludes Wednes- days and Fridays (in some cases). When are people to see their doctor if they only have three days of the week when they can attempt to get an appointment? , . - - Have you ever tried to be treated at the emergepcy in the evening? It can be two hours before the doc- tor even -arrives.- What's the doc(or, doing if he's "on call" - watch, ing TV, playing on the Internet, cutting the grass or •practicing his golf swing? . 1 • In London, we've all. waited four to five hours -to see a doctor but you can see the doctor is visibly working and is in the department. I don't -understand long waits when the doctor is off tending to his own needs while being paid gener- ously by being on call. - ' - It's rumoured that our doctors want more money ' to be on call, 'more than the $70 per hour they are presently receiving. Why not, if they were at the hospital and actually earning it. If they received over.$100 per hour would we see a staffing prob- .•lem? I bet not. - I realize that education is worth a decent dollar • value but Fd expect professionalism and to be treat= ed with respect. We all have demanding jobs. ' After long office. or ER: waits,] wish the doctors would convey they're there to do what is best for`us and not rush away. So often 1 hear it is 'nurses who provide the actual hands-on care. if we can't equip our hospital now, we won't need n'e. doctors - we won't have a hospital._ To the late Dr. Goddard, he was truly a credit, to his profession. Although late evening office hours and Midnight house calls are - unrealistic today, his priority was the patient.- Some atient.Some of today's physicians don't see. weekends OR a 40 hour work week as part of their profession. My apologies to those doctors that do. In a community that is only a step away from los- ing its entire hospital, why did some of these people choose, that profession. After hearing our hospital would have doctors this weekend, I called in to find that Drs. Engler], Lam and Steciuk rallied to keep our hospital open on this weekend. if there was anyone•else, thank you. • , There is still hope:. - - - - - Editor's note: The author of this litter is known to the T.A. The name is being withheld because ofa , close connection to the health care field in the South - - Huron area. - Happy Birthday Canada! Happy to be Canadlan.-These Lucan young men, know how to show off their pride to be Ca- nadian during Canada Day festivities in their hometown. From left: Adam Froats, Bryce Bum - stead, Mike Jacques, Scott Thompson, Ben Mcfalls and Brad Funston. '