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Times-Advocate, 1999-03-24, Page 5Wednesday, March 24, 1999 Exeter Times -Advocate In the News Local impact not known with Tory health increases By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF GODERICH — While the provincial govern- ment made several an- nouncements on health care last week, the Hu- ron Perth Ilospitals Part- nership isn't sure how they will affect local hos- pitals. While happy about a government commit- ment to increase fund- ing to the hospital, Jan- ice Cosgrove, site administrator for South Huron Hospital, said the money is inadequate. The government an- nounced it will increase funding to Ontario hos- pitals by $68 million. It also pledged an extra $20 million to hospitals in fast-growing regions of Ontario (Durham, York, Halton and Peel regions) and $17 million province -wide to im- prove the province's magnetic resonance im- aging services. The bottom line of the increase is that South Huron will receive an additional $34',949 an- nually, a figure Cosgrove said amounts to about one per cent of the hos- pital's budget. While she said the money is helpful, it doesn't address the chronic underfunding South Huron has ex- perienced. She said in- stead .of spreading the money province -wide, the government should have focussed its atten- tion to hospitals such as South Huron that are in a deficit position. According to Cosgrove South Huron needs an additional $300,000 to balance its budget this year. "That's a significant shortfall for us." The government's oth- er announcement was a pledge of $130 million to •hire 3,300 new •perma- nent full and part-time nurses over the next year. Cosgrove said she is pleased with the an- nouncement but said the Huron Perth partnership still isn't sure how much the program will help lo- cal hospitals. She said more details should be known by the end of this week. The government's pro- gram includes an in- crease of $10 million an- nually on nurse practitioners, who are trained to perform more duties than registered nurses. Cosgrove said, nurse practitioners, who are able to prescribe med- icine and diagnose com- mon illnesses, won't re- place doctors, but can help ease the burden- of areas such as Exeter that are experiencing doctor shortages. Urban centres are ex- periencing more severe nurse shortages than ru- ral centres, Cosgrove said, adding that South Huron hasn't recruited nurses recently because of cutbacks. She ex- plained there are many nurses working several part-time jobs because there isn't full-time work available. South Huron Hospital employs 24 full and part- time registered nurses. We`II (Siltive to loop gller your tit(lrIuIp peels. 'As a retail customer who is served by Ontario Hydro, in April , you wili automatically become a customer served by the new Ontat a Hydro Services Company. It's that -simple. The name on your electricity bill will change, but you'll still have the same reliable electrical service you've come to depend on. And, as Ontario opens up to competition, that service is expected to be even better. We're pleased to welcome you as a customer and we'll continue to keep you informed as the industry evolves. And as always, you can reach us at our Customer Communications Cen re, 1-888-664-9376, for any billing or service enquiry. 0 Tyzesn Despite the official start of spring on Sunday, winter returned to the Exeter area Monday morning with a couple of inches of snow and harardous driving conditions. Here a jeep is pulled out of the ditch by a tow truck just north of Clandeboye along Hwy. 4. 'Bend committee seeks answer on medical centre Byr Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF GRAND BEND — If the attendance at a public meeting is any in dication, Grand Bend residents are supportive of a proposed medica centre for the village. Residents packed the Grand Cove club house last Thursday to- hear from the Grand Bend and . • Area Medical Re- sources Steering Com- , imittee, which sent in an application to the Min- istry of Health for a new medical centre for the village. The group wants a response within 60 days. Chairperson of the. committee Don Tedford said the committee has received 1,000 petitions of support from res- idents. The committee also sent out 4,000 ques- tionnaires to the public asking what they wanted in a medical facility. Ted- ford said over 700 were completed and returned. The proposed medical centre will be 15,000 sq. ft., compared with the existing clinic's 2,200 sq. ft. Tedford said the com- mittee wants six doctors for the new facility, as well • as nurse practi- tioners, nurses and sup- port staff. Three doctors now work out of the ex- isting clinic, although it is only designed to hold two. Dr. Peter Englert said the new centre should provide physiotherapy, x-rays, nutrition coun- selling, health promotion and a defibrillator. Tedford said all staff at the proposed centre will work only 40 hours a week, avoiding burnout that can happen when doctors are forced to work 60-70 hours week - y. He said the committee wants to attract young doctors to the area and, if accepted, an applica- tion for underserviced Huron MPP Helen Johns addresses the audience dur- ing a public meeting on the proposed medical centre for Grand Bend. designation could pro- vide over $30,000 an- nually to attract doctors. - According to Tedford, doctors graduating today want time off, state-of- the-art equipment and a realistic emergency room schedule. Doctors also consider the pros- pects of employment for their spouses, something that can be tough to pro- vide in small com- munities. As well as the medical centre committee mem- bers and members from Grand Bend,. Bosanquet and Stephen Township councils, last week's public meeting included Huron MPP Helen Johns and Lambton MPP. Mar- cel Beaubien. Johns admitted there are doctor shortages and said the government will have to keep working on changing health care. She said the under - serviced program, which provides money for com- munities to attract doc- tors, was designed to help areas such as Grand Bend. Englert added that any new doctors attracted to the area will ease the pressure on South Huron Hospital's emergency room, which was forced to close for a shift on March 14. Beaubien credited the • committee for its work and said he is familiar with the problem of doc- tor shortages as the Wal- laceburg hospital's emer- gency room was closed for six weeks_ last sum- mer. Beaubien said emer- gency room closures are unacceptable and said he is a strong proponent of nurse practitioners, who are able to perform more duties than nurses. During the question and answer period of the meeting, concerns were raised about whether Ontario was trying to at- tract doctors from other provinces. Englert re- sponded that the prov- inces have agreed not to take each other's doc- tors. As for attracting doc- tors from other coun- tries, Beaubien said for- eign doctors must meet Canadian qualifications to practice here.