HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-11-30, Page 1818 News Record • Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Huron County warns hospice network that council might not have `appetite' to pay for new beds
Darryl Coote
Postmedia Network
Huron County was loud
and clear Nov. 9 when it
told the South West Hos-
pice Palliative Care Net-
work (SWHPCW) that if
they are expecting the
county to help cover the
cost for new hospice beds
in the region, they should
think again.
Mary Cardinal and Lisa
Penner, leads with the
network, were updating
county council on the pro-
gress being made to deter-
mine the location for 10
residential hospice beds
in Huron -Perth when
given the warning.
They were also there
Wednesday to inform the
county of a potential fund-
ing model for the beds as
well as to encourage the
mayors to share the infor-
mation with their respec-
tive municipalities.
Several county council-
lors, particularly Bluewa-
ter mayor Tyler Hessel,
saw the presentation as a
primer for when they
come back in months'
RE.01.
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time to ask the county to
fund the beds.
"We'd be naive if we
didn't" think the presenta-
tion was part of a sales
pitch, he said.
Huron -Perth has desig-
nated by the province to be
a high -need area and 10
beds (five for each county)
have been allocated as a
first step to increase
capacity.
The province, through
Ontario Hospice, will pro-
vide $105,000 per bed per
year. However, that leaves
about $65,000 a bed a year to
come from other sources.
"The ministry funding for
funded residential hospital
beds is about 60 per cent of
the operation. So it does
come to the community, dif-
ferent providers, different
stake holders, to provide the
other 40 per cent," Cardinal
said.
Penner then said the may-
ors, as community leaders,
need to encourage their citi-
zenries to support and fund -
raise for the service.
"You are all here repre-
senting municipalities in
Huron County, so the
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expectation is you need to
come together and this fun-
draising endeavour needs to
come from each and every
small community because
this is a service that supports
your entire county and so at
this point and time it is fund-
raising," she told council.
This approach was
questioned by ACW Reeve
Ben Van Diepenbeek as a
way for the provincial gov-
ernment to place the bur-
den of cost on to lower -
tier administrations.
"You can fundraise all
you want but at some
point they'll be back to
these municipalities look-
ing for a donation and
we'll be the ones paying
the bill at the end of the
day," he said.
Cardinal addressed this
saying that the provincial
ministry of health has
upped its funding, as can
be seen in the 60 per cent.
"So, we're being heard,"
she said.
This wasn't good
enough for Hessel, who
said he is concerned the
ministry is "sloughing off"
its responsibility on to
them in order to shore up
its financial end.
Hessel, who has previ-
ously sat on the Clinton
hospital board, said they
were constantly trying to
find ways to keep services
running and suggested
that instead of making res-
idential hospice beds put
them in the hospitals.
"I'm just throwing it out
there because I know how
hard the struggle is," he
said.
He said he understands
that their presentation to
council wasn't specifically
to ask the county for
money, but that is what
the mayors heard.
"I know you are not ask-
ing us directly but I can
tell you right now the
funding that you're asking
for as much as you're say-
ing it will come from the
lower tiers, it will come
from here. And I suspect
that is why you're here.
I'm pulling a punch here,
but I think that's the
truth," he said.
Hessel said he was
reluctant for Huron to
spend the $20,000 in
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September on the report
that will be made availa-
ble in January suggesting
where the beds should be
located because he trusts
that the South West Local
Health Integration Net-
work (LHIN) knows what
is needed.
"I appreciate wanting to
fundraise and if the com-
mittee wants to do that
themselves, great," he
said. "As for looking for
funding from the county,
it's getting harder and
harder to adjust to the
ministry asking us to pay
10 per cent, 20 per cent, 40
per cent of the cost."
Penner then said that
they aren't there to ask for
money. Hessel then said
but they already have, for
the study, and they will be
back asking for more
again.
Huron County CAO
Brenda Orchard then
asked for clarity on an
aspect of the report. She
said she was under the
impression that the report
was seeing if there was
capacity for communities
to cover the 40 per cent
but neither she nor her
staff was officially con-
tacted to see what they
thought.
The concern of the
room, Orchard said, is that
the provincial government
is "downloading" more of
its responsibilities on to
lower -tier governments,
which may not have the
ability to pay.
She said she was "a little
disappointed" no one
working on the report
contacted them to gauge
their "appetite" for sup-
port or funding.
"If there's even a twinkle
in your mind that county
might be a large part of
that funding for that 40
per cent or any part of that
funding of the 40 per cent
or even 1 per cent of that
40 per cent, nobody asked
us during the course of
that study. Nobody ,,,
Nobody has asked us," she
said. "I'm thinking you
shouldn't go away with
the assumption that
there's maybe an appetite,
and there might not be.
That's a question for this
council."
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