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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1999-03-17, Page 88 AMP Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday. March 17, 1999 Editoriai;.O inion TIMES -ADVOCATE PUBLICATIONS MAIL REGISCRATION sIUMBER 07511 Jin Beckett Publisher and Editor Don Smith Deb Lord General Manager Production Manager Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited 424 Main. Street South, P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 • (519) 235-1331 EDITORIAL No news is not necessarily good news The long awaited report on hospital restructuring has finally arrived. No one can quite figure out what impact it will have, if any, on the way our local hospi- tals operate. The Health Services Restructuring Commission report underlines the concept that rural and north- ern hospitals wilt work together in networks. This is not exactly hot news. Most hospitals have been net- working on an informal basis for years. But initial instructions and reports from the HSRC went fur- ther, re s lg the prospect of hospital closures, and the doading of small ho'pitals to clinic status. Hospi1116, at least in this art L, reacted by complet- ing extensive studies and reports. They were fight- ing for survival - of the hospital, of a significant eco- nomic entity and employer, of a community land- mark, and the physical survival of area residents. Staff and board members devoted quite a bit of time and energy, not to mention money, to putting together a good enough plan - good enough to keep the hospital doors open. Now the hospitals have had their plans virtually rubber stamped in a bland ending to months of des- peration. The final report said remarkably little, other than the restructuring commission wants to hear how things are going in a few months. Perhaps hospitals and community health care pro- grams can now get on with finding solutions to some critical issues. There is a serious shortage of doctors in most rural and northern communities. The immediate and most serious result of this is a good many peo- ple do not have a regular family physician, and are forced to use the local emergency department as their only access to the health care system. It also means people who do have a family physician can- not change doctors. And it means the few doctors in a community risk burnout. Most of all, it means hos- pital administration and community officials must devote time, energy and money to recruiting more doctors, a matter briefly touched on in the report. A related problem is the shortage of highly trained nursing professionals. For the past decade or more, recent graduates have had to go to -the United States to find jobs. At the same time, nurses low on the seniority list at local hospitals lost their jobs in cut- backs, and found employment in other communities, or other lines of work. Hospital wards are presently operating with the minimum number of nurses, all of them highly expe- rienced and working at peak efficiency. Burnout is a serious and immediate danger, but there is another potentially disastrous situation brewing. As these -skilled, experienced nurses approach retirement age, there is no one in the wings waiting to take over. You cannot take a nurse who graduat- ed 10 years ago and has been working in a day care centre, restaurant or insurance office ever since, and expect her to be able to cope with the stress and technology of a busy hospital ward. The option will be to spend big money to lure the experienced nurs- es away from their well-paid jobs in Texas. And then there is the demand for updated technol- ogy in even the smallest of northern and rural hos- pitals. There is no government funding for this needed equipment. Fund raising in the community requires constant effort, and increasingly, profes- sional skills. Add to this the fact that too many acute care hos- pital beds are occupied by mental patients with no place else to go, and chronic care patient for whom there will likely be no place in a suitable facility for at least a couple of years. Our health care system needed more from this report than a rubber stamp and a demand for yet another detailed study. A t�11iG6�}fes RV A Y >JP I / /Sit .N� Canadian NHL teams facing extinction Put a fork in professional hockey in Canada. Unless the three levels of government start giving some assistance to Canadian NHL teams, there's no way they're going to be able to compete or survive in today's world of high salaries Want evidence? Look at what two Canadian teams have had to do over the past couple of weeks. The Calgary Flames, unable to afford Theo Fleury (the great- est player in their history), who becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, unloaded him to the Colorado Avalanche, who are only "renting" Fleury for their Stanley Cup drive. Watch for Fleury to end up with the New York Rangers, a team with more money than it knows what to do with, in the summer. More recently, the Montreal Canadiens traded right winger Mark Recchi, the heart and soul of the team and the closest thing the Habs had to a superstar. He went back to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he still holds the team record for most points in a season with 123. There he'll join Eric Lindros and former Hab John Leclair and probably help the Flyers to playoff success. Like Calgary's Fleury trade, the Recchi trade was pre- cipitated by the fact he will become a free agent on July 1 and was demanding upwards of $6 million, a year, money the Habs were unwilling or — if you believe their owners, Molson — unable to pay. So why are Canadian NHL owners having trouble keeping their heads above water? ,Taxes and the Canadian currency. The Canadiens pay about $12 million annually in property taxes to the City of Montreal, more than three times the amount any NHL team pays in the U.S. What should also be considered is thefact that the Canadiens' four-year old arena, The Molson Centre, was privately funded. In the U.S., the government would have helped pay for a chunk of the arena. So not only are the Habs penalized by having to pay for their own arena, they then have to pay massive property taxes on top of that. And imagine what they could do with that $12 million each year if they didn't have to give it away in taxes. 'They could have kept Recchi and signed a couple of other highprofile free agents in the summer. Instead, they had to unload Recchi and hope the player they got for him, Dainius Zubrus, lives up to his potential and can help the team. Another problem is the Canadian currency, now hov- ering around 66 cents U.S. While Canadian teams pay their players in U.S. money, their revenue comes in Canadian dollars. There's clearly a problem when the Montreal Canadiens, the team with the richest history in the NHL with 24 Stanley Cups, can't afford to ice a competitive team. Just check out the standings — the Habs probably won't make the playoffs this year. But while Canadian teams obviously need help, it doesn't look like they're going to get any. Prime Minister Jean Chretien said just last week the government is "not in the business of helping sports teams." Well, that's fine and dandy, Jean, but the gov- ernment is in the business of protecting Canadian culture and if some or all of the Canadian NHL teams head south of the border, then part of Canada's culture has died. And if the government is so gung-ho about protecting Canada from American magazines, why does- n't it protect Canadian hockey, something which certainly is more important to the nation's pride than Saturday Night magazine. Of course, the reason the government isn't in favour of helping these teams is because the ,,ublic seems to be against it. People say, "Why should we help out a bunch of millionaires when there are people starving on the streets and health care and education are eroding?" Good point, but I don't buy it — the government already gives tax breaks to major corporations, so why not hockey teams? They boost the economies of their cities, are big employers and raise the profile of the area they're located in. Has the city of Winnipeg even crossed anyone's mind, since the Jets left town? How about Quebec City? Didn't think so. Plus, the complainers who pooh-pooh hockey are the same people who will gripe about Canada becoming. Americanized after the Ottawa Senators move to Little Rock and the Calgary Flames move to Kalamazoo. Hockey is only a game, but it's a game that has brought this nation together. And in a country which constantly threatens to split apart, hockey's a game worth saving. In other words, we should do everything we can to rescue these teams — before it's too late. SCOTT NDCON AND ANOTHER THING About the Times -Advocate Address & Office- Hours Times -Advocate, 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Contact Us By Phone or Fax Classified acj & subscription sales (519) 235-1331 24-hour automated attendant (519) 235-1336 Fax number for all departments (519) 235-0766 Subscription Rates One year rate for addresses in Canada: $35+GST Two year rate for addresses in Canada: $63+GST One year rate for addresses outside Canada: $102 Call (519 235-1331 to, order a subscription. 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