Cornwall Ontario – There is a protest scheduled for Monday morning in front of MPP Jim Brownell’s office as local CUPE 7811 is protesting hospital cuts that will impact jobs and patient care. Mr. Brownell contacted us with some information regarding some of the issues of this protest.
“These are some comments that I wish to make, relative to the protest that will be happening at my office, tomorrow, by CUPE.
Just as much work went into securing the $5 million for the Cornwall Community Hospital’s operations, recently, so is much work being done by myself and the team from the hospital, lead by CEO Jeanette Despatie, and Board Chair Fern Hamelin.
I have met with Jeannette and some board members, and I continue to advocate their concerns to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. My first prority, upon election in 2003, was the hospital situations in the riding, -the need for capital and operational funding.
With the advocacy I have done and results that have been achieved, I think much, direct attention has been focused on the three hospitals in the riding, by the McGuinty government. Having said the above, there is much more work to be done. I truly respect and appreciate the work done by ALL personnel at the hospital. I know that some of the employees, there, believe that not enough is being done. I think that the community would say that much has been done, and that much more can be accomplished, in the future, if we all work together.
I have worked diligently on this file and the Board and CEO know exactly what I’ve done. Community leaders and citizens know, too!
Regarding future operational dollars for the hospital, I remain optimistic, as I am never one to close doors. I continue to seek opportunities to meet and discuss hospital concerns with the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, the Honourable Deb Matthews.
Having said the above, I am not blind to the tremendous pressures that face the Ministry and hospitals, as they face an aging population and the health issues that result. That huge group of “baby-boomers” are now putting pressures on the healthcare system. I know, I was a hospital treatment statistic on three occasions in 2009.
With an Ontario budget to be announced, soon, I am hoping that some attention will be paid to this issue during the budget of 2010. I have certainly made the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, and the Premier, aware of the serious financial pressures in the hospitals of Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry.
The constituents of Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry know that I’ve worked my best to bring the healthcare issues and concerns to the desks of the Ministers of Health and Long-Term Care, -George Smitherman, David Caplan and Deb Matthews.
With the situation in Ontario and, indeed, throughout the world, regarding healthcare spending, you have to look at the cold hard facts. We are a rapidly aging society, with the baby-boomers adding tremendous pressures to the hospitals. The McGuinty government has stepped to the plate and provided tremendous supports to our hospitals, knowing that people need treatment. And we don’t turn them away, either.
Along with supports to hospitals, we’ve hired thousands of new nurses, and found places for them to gain valuable experience. We’ve trained hundreds of new doctors. We even opened a “new” site for the training of doctors, a few years ago. We added new “Health Care Teams” and “Community Health Centres” across the province, and we even have the Seaway Valley Community Health Centre under construction at Pitt and Fourth Streets, in Cornwall.
We’ve expanded the concept of Nurse-Practitioner Led Clinics across the province, and we are getting one of these clinics in South Glengarry, soon. It has already been announced, and slated to open in Lancaster.
To blame the government for problems in the healthcare system is somewhat unfair, but that’s usually the way it goes in the situation where employees advocate and picket. First class health care is expensive, but “don’t raise my taxes”!!!
Citizens have seen the successes, and I shall continue to work tirelessly, on their behalf. I believe that it is very important that we have a “first class” regional hospital at the Cornwall Community Hospital site, and I shall continue to advocate on behalf of its staff and patients.
Jim Brownell, MPP
Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry
I personally want to thank Mr. Brownell. He always is giving and communicative with us in the local media. I wish more politician’s took his example and cooperated to the same degree. We will be attending and covering the debate tomorrow.
What do you think Cornwall? Health care is the number one issue facing all of us. You can post your comments below or email us at info@cornwallfreenews.com
We’ll be live on www.seawayradio.com tomorrow from 12:30PM. We have Mark Holland, Liberal MP scheduled as our first guest to discuss the Seaway International Bridge Crisis as well as the Federal budget. We’ll throw open the lines and talk about health care and the protest as well.
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Have the Liberal Ministers & Premier explain this….
http://tinyurl.com/yd8suvj
“…the disclosure could reasonably be expected to be injurious to the financial interests of the Government of Ontario,….”
whilst they make cuts,lay off people and close Emergency Rooms and Hospitals due to lack of funding.
http://tinyurl.com/yaw4too
No offense, but what does Pitbulls have to do with the Hospital issue? Not that I agree with the regressive ban on Pitbulls, but again, what does it have to do with this issue?
As for Brownell, its too bad, I like the guy. I just think McGuinty basically played political suicide over all his lies, with all the provincial liberals careers. And that is going to be a hard stigma for the rest of the Ontario Liberals to beat. Couple this hospital funding/bed cutback issue on top of it all, and I feel it does not bode well for the Ontario Liberals. Not that I think Hudak can fix anything. His hands are tied too!
A change is as good as a rest.
Mr. Brownell has a great deal of praise for what the government and he have done for healthcare locally. To read his piece, one would think we were expanding rather than cutting service. Perhaps, like Health Minister Deb Matthews, he too believes that cuts will result in enhanced levels of care. Or perhaps he’s not aware that our hospital is cutting beds and services and closing a department? There is no acknowledgement of these developments in his statement.
Mr. Brownell attributes the mindset “don’t raise my taxes” to the employees who are out there advocating for the hospital. He seems to think they are oblivious to the cost of care. But Mr. Brownell, that was not an anti-tax rally today, but it could well have been, given that your government is actually raising taxes at the same time that it’s forcing cuts to care.
Instead of giving away all those billions of dollars to GM and other multi-nationals, it would have been much smarter to put that money into our health care system.