HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-06-18, Page 1r
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GODERICH, ONTARIO; WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1986
60 CENTS PER COPY
Doctors offer only essential services
Cancel elective
surgery and
resign committees
By SHARON DIETZ
Goderich doctors have withdrawn all
but essential services in their support of
the strike called by the Ontario Medical
Association, to protest the provincial
legislation banning extra -billing in the
province.
Doctors are only providing essential
ser-
vices at the hospital and their offices, said
Dr. Donald Neal, chief of staff at Alexan-
dria Marine and General Hospial on Tues-
day. Elective surgery has been cancelled,
doctors have resigned from all hospital
committees and the Medical Advisory
Committee of the hospital has resigned.
Dr. Neal will continue to provide his
function as chief of staff monitoring quali-
ty of care at the hospital and will not aban-
don his reposnsibility supervising care at
the hospital, however, he has ,resigned
from hospital committees and the hospital
board of governors.
All but one of the Goderich doctors have
decided to keep their offices open for
urgent matters, but doctors will not be giv-
ing free advice over the phone or filling
prescriptions over the phone.
Dr. Neal said the local doctors fully sup-
port the Ontario Medical Association in its
strike but would be willing to participate in
a mass opting out of the Ontario Hospital
Insurance Plan. Opting out means patients
would be billed for services by their doc-
tors and they would have to submit the bill
to the government for payment.
Dr. Neal and Dr. Kenton Lambert will
attend a meeting of the OMA• council in
Toronto tomorrow when they will recom-
mend the doctors in the province opt out of
OHIP en masse rather than persue a con-
tinued strike.
The doctors will be discussing how toap-
propriately direct action after the govern-
ment passes the legislation banning extra -
billing, said Dr. Neal.
Doctors want to express their loss of
faith and indignation by opting out while
saying they cannot serve patients under
the terms the government has laid down,
he said.
"There is a large body of opinion suppor-
ting mass opting out," said Dr. Neal who
would like to see the OMA endorse this
action. -
Dr. Neal said closing the emergency
department at Alexandra Marine and
General Hospital is not a realistic con-
sideration. Meanwhile doctors at more
than a dozen community hospitals across
Ontario closed emergency departments
yesterday to everyone except patients with
life-threatening conditions. Doctors at
ummyh n
grenade found
on youth
A youth attending Young Offenders Court
in Goderich June 11 was found to have a
dummy hand grenade hanging from his
pocket when he entered the court room. The
youth has been charged with possession of
an imitation weapon and threatening Judge
R. G. E. Hunter. The youth was remanded
-out of custody and will reappear on the
charges.
In another incident, a Goderich man has
been charged with assault following an
argument on Lighthouse Street with a
Goderich area man earlier this month.
Goderich Town Police are investigating
mischief which caused damage to lawns, an
-outdoor light and a lens cover on a vehicle
on Elizabeth Street on the weekend. Also on
the weekend, police attended a cou•'9e of
noisy parties.
Police recovered stolen vehicle in the
hospital parking lot and two flags which
were stolen from Huron County Gaol., .
Two youths were arrested on The Square
early Sunday morning for causing a
disturbance.
Goderich doctors Charles Chan and Derek
Pearce are shown discussing the strike to
protest the ban on extra -billing frith the.
public on The Square Tuesday afternoon.
Local doctors took the public relations
measure to inform the public about the
strike and their reasons for supporting it.
(photo by Paul Hartman)
other hospitals are meeting to decide on
similar tactics protesting the legislation to
ban extra -billing by doctors.
Ontario doctors were warned that com-
pletely closing an emergency department
is unacceptable to the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons in Ontario.
In its first public statement on the strike
which began June 12, the College said
disruption of emergency department ser-
vices is causing increasing public
inconvenience.
isgASYVA
Dr. Harry Cieslar resigns from county post
Cites irreconcilable differences with clerk -treasurer and board
BY SUSAN'HUNDERTMARK
Dr. Harry Cieslar, Medical Officer of
Health (MOH.) for Huron County, has
resigned from his position stating "ir-
reconcilable differences" with the chair-
man of the board of health, the board of
health and the clerk -treasurer of Huron
County as the reason.
Dr. Cieslar, whose position will end on
July 2?, said the differences come from a
conflict between provincial regulations
and a county by-law making Huron's
clerk -treasurer Bill Hanly chief ad-
ministrative officer over all boards in the
county. The Health Protection and Promo-
tion Act, however, states that the MOH is
the executive officer of the board of health.
"Over the past two years, I haven't had
any support of the board to resolve that
conflict. We can't have two bosses of a
system," he says.
"The health unit is labelled by county
council as a committee of council (rather
than an autonomous board) and so far,
they've gotten away with that. The county
system is out-of-date and doesn't follow
legislation. It's also too power-hungry and
it's tithe somebody spoke up about it," he
says.
Dealing with who has the ultimate in-
fluence over the administration including
issues such as hiring staff and setting
wages has been a daily problem for the
past five years, says Dr. Cieslar.
"Most decisions are made behind the
scenes and if I ask to be part of the discus-
sion, I'm put in a bad light during meetings
of the board of health," he says.
"The chairman works behind the scenes
with the clerk -treasurer and that's
frustrating. I've been thinking about
resigning for a year now," he says.
Dr. Cieslar says the fact that the board
of health did not support him in his request
for a financial manager has made it im-
possible for him to•chase grants that would
enable him to run programs in all sorts of
areas of public health including topics
such as depression, suicide, drug
dependency, child abuse„ parenting and
supportive programs for the elderly.
He also says the county's by-law,
enacted in 1968 is probably the reason why
the four MOHs previous to him have left
the county.
"I've lived with two years of being the
hit man every , meeting of the board.
-They've blamed me with just about
I everything. And, I can't live with that
anymore," he says.
Dr. Cieslar says he hasn't made any
plans about his future but says he has a
strong philosophy of public heath and will
probably resurface somewhere else in
public health "where I have the support I
need to pursue my mandate."
Brian McBurney, chairman of the board
of health says Dr. Cieslar chose not to
work the way the board is set up in Huron
County.
"He sees himself as chief executive of-
ficer of the health unit. In my way of think-
ing, he's the executive only when he's deal-
ing with medical things. But, he reads it to
say he has to do all the administration
himself," says McBurney.
"He's resented it from the beginning
that when it comes to payroll or budgeting,
we use the county clerk. He's a good MOH
'but he tries to do more than what he
should."
McBurney says that since Huron County
has the smallest health unit in the pro-
vince, it cannot afford to have a.separate
administrator other than the county clerk.
"We have such a restricted budget that
we wouldn't have money for health pro-
grams if we spent it all on administra-
tion," says McBurney.
He says that the board of health has
Give up your
lunch money
for Haitians
given Dr. Cieslar good cooperation and
that Dr. Cieslar has been present at every
meeting when decisions were made.
"I feel we're very open," he says.
McBurney adds that Dr. Cieslar has
been difficult to work with because he
won't follow county guidelines or policies.
When the board's hiring committee made
up of McBurney, Clerk -Treasurer Hanly
and Warden Leona Armstrong met the
spring to hire health unit personnel,
McBurney says Dr. Cieslar did not want to
be part of the interviews.
"He thinks he should be able to hire
them himself," says McBurney. "The hir-
ing policy is county policy. I don't know
what provincial policy is."
A draft management review of the rela-
tionship between the Huron health unit and
the county council by the Ministry of
Health points to difficulties with the con-
flict between the county by-law and pro-
vincial regulations.
"We ndted that apparent misconceptions
of the roles and responsibilities of the
county council, board of health, medical
• officer of health and the clerk -treasurer's
department have had adverse effects on
the morale and efficiency of the staff of the
Turn topage 3®
Members of Haitian Experience '86 are
asking the people of Goderich to give up
their lunch money for one day on Wednes-
day, July 2 and contribute it towards their
trip to Haiti from July 5 to 19.
The Royal Bank in Goderich will accept
donations of lunch money and deposit
them into the group's bank account until
Friday, July 4.
"It's a good awareness program to get a
lot of people involved. It's something
everyone can do and it's simple," says Mia
Dalton, the coordinator of a group of
Goderich area people who are travelling to
Haiti.
Giving up lunch money for one day will
help local people realize that those people
living in the slums of Port .au Prince are
malnourished and often go for days
without a lunch.
"While we give up one meal out of three,
the poor people in Haiti usually only have
one meal a day," she says.
While in Haiti, the group plans to assist
medical students from the University of
Western Ontario with a three day im-
munization program, work at a leper col-
ony, Mother Theresa's home for the dying,
a home for wayward boy's and an or-
phanage, paint an eye clinic and plant
trees. The group still needs to raise $1000
for the trip.
—.The group mill- • also • take 'supplies
gathered locally such as clothing, soap and
toothbrushes, pens and paper, hospital
gowns and medicine to the world's poorest
country.
Day care parents have two options says ministry
Goderichparentshave two options when
considering a new day care centre, says
Judy Cooper, of the Ministry of Communi-
ty and Social Services.
The provincial government will finan-
cially support a day care centre which is
run by either the municipality or a non-
profit incorporated community group.
"If a non-profit group comprised of day
care parents run the centre, the parents
would have more involvement in it since
they would be the ones to form the board of
directors to run it," says Cooper.
A municipally -run day care centre
would be administrated by the town.
Any non-profit day care centre would be
expected to set fees which should cover the
operating costs. The operating loss would
then be funded 50 per cent by the federal
government, 30 per cent by the provinicial
government and 20 per cent by the
municipality or the non-profit community
group.
While the town would probably take the
20 per cent out of municipal taxes if it ran
the centre, a non-profit group would have
to do fund-raising to cover the 20 per cent,
she says.
When building a new day care facility,
the provincial government would provide
50 per cent of the total cost. The provincial
government would also pay for 80 per cent
of the renovations if a day care centre was
located in a building that is already
standing.
,Though the provincial government does
set aside money every year to cover the
capital costs of building or renovating day
care centres, Cooper says she can't
guarantee fundin is immediately
available for such purposes.
"But, if the community decides that day
care is a need and it will stand behind a
day care centre, we'll do our best to find
the money, she says.
While there is no difference in provincial
funding of day nurseries and day nurseries and day care cen-
tres, the operating costs of day care cen-
tres are usually higher. A 1:8 ratio of
teachers to children is mandatory making
.salaries the major part of a day care cen-
tre's. budget.
A day care centre must also have a kit-
chen and a playground while a nursery
school does not.
posts to either the municipality or the
n; n -profit organization•also rise depending
p the number of parents in need of sub-
Sidy. These subsidies are determined with
parent -initiated means testing and sub-
sidies can cover all or a portion of the
parents' fees.
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INSIDE THE
SIGNAL -STAR
Horseshoe tourney
The Goderich HoiLseshoe Pitching Club
hosted its first annual tournament on
Saturday at the Goderich Legion with 61
participants competing in five different
classes. The event is featured on today's
sports page in section A where
photographer Paul Hartman has captured
a variety of throwing styles and reactions
to results.
Pioneer days
Students at Colborne Central School ex-
perienced the ways of their ancestors first
hand when the staff at their school
developed a special pioneer unit as part of
the Colborne Township Sesquicentennial
celebrations this year. See the photos and
story on our community page today as the
children discover rope making, sheep
shearing and spinning.
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