Huron Expositor, 2006-06-28, Page 12age 12 June 28, 2006 • The Huron Expositor
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News
Recruitment of doctors Still
biggest challenge facing AIiianc
Brian Shypula
The biggest challenge facing the Huron Perth
Healthcare Alliance is recruiting doctors, leaders said
at their annual meeting last week.
CEO Andrew William and chief of staff Dr.
Laurel Moore offered the warning at the
Alliance's annual meeting held at the
Mitchell Golf and Country Club.
It was the sole piece of sobering news at
what was otherwise a night of positives for
the group of four hospitals in Stratford, St.
Marys, Seaforth and Clinton.
In its third full year of operation, the
Alliance rang up a $1 -million budget sur-
plus in 2005-06, received provincial
approval and funding of a $46.5 -million
renovation for Stratford General Hospital,
added a new CT scanner to speed up diag-
noses and brought down wait times for key surgeries
mandated by the Ministry of Health and Long -Term
Care.
But it faces a shortage of family physicians in St.
Marys, Seaforth and Clinton and specialists at
Stratford.
Dr. Moore said the Alliance has an immediate need
and faces the looming retirement of two others, she
said.
Seaforth and Clinton could each use two new general
practitioners, she said.
"If we have to pick one issue that's going to be with us
for a while and one issue we need to be
aggressive about, it's retention and
recruitment," Williams said.
"We are competing against everybody,"
he said, calling it an "all-out fight"
nationally and internationally.
The stable financial state of the alliance
and the future improvements to Stratford
General will help with recruitment,
Williams said.
Moore echoed the thought.
"I feel a bit like I'm on a winning team
right now," Moore said.
Other positives from 2005-06 included
the full integration of the Alliance's manage-
ment structure and the creation of a single medical
staff to replace individual staffs at each hospital.
"We have really melded together as a cohesive group
and the result is a very strong medical staff," Moore.
said.
Ron Bolton, who wound up a two-year stint as the
board's chair, said the Alliance's support of family
health teams and the province's "transformation agen-
da" including local health improvement networks, was
responsible for increased funding that helped it balance
its budget and turn a surplus.
"There's no doubt in my mind that our continuing
support of this initiative as a board has enabled us to
obtain increased government funding," he said.
"We, the Huron .Perth Healthcare Alliance, are lead-
ing the way within the province in terms of integra-
tion," he said.
Nancy Sneddon, president of the Stratford Hospital
Auxiliary, presented a poster -sized cheque for $130,000
the group raised as part of a $1 -million pledge toward
equipment for new facilities and new technology.
Williams said the Alliance will bank the $1 -million
surplus and use it for capital projects and equipment
purchases.
`We are
competing
against
everybody,' --
Alliance CEO
Andrew Williams
- for two or three radiologists —
doctors who interpret
and diagnose X-
rays and CT and
MRI scans.
T h e
Alliance also
needs a new psy-
chiatrist to fill a
recent vacancy.
In the
smaller commu-
nities, family
doctors are need-
ed. The situation
is urgent in St.
Marys, which
lost three doctors
in a short span
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North Main residents need to boil
water as watermains connected
between Welsh and Goderich St.
Residents of North Main Street in
Seaforth will be dealing with boil
water advisories during the next
week or so as new watermains are
being installed from Welsh Street to
Goderich Street.
"The mains have been installed
and are full of water and we're wait-
ing for samples to be approved
before we tie the laterals into the
houses," says Huron East's Public
Works Coordinator Barry Mills.
Mills says certain sections of the
street will be without water for
short periods of time as the work
progresses this week.
The work replaces old cast iron
watermains and installs them deep-
er in the ground to prevent future
breaks and freezing.
The project, jointly done by Huron
East and Huron County, also
includes new drainage, new curbs
and paving of the road.
Mills says the project is expected
to be completed by the end of July
with reseeding of the boulevards to
be done sometime in the fall.
"We've had a few complaints about
the dust but we're trying to keep the
calcium to it to keep the dust down,"
he says.
By Susan Hundertmark