In the recent article headlined Doctors
concerned one-site hospital could be delayed, Dr. John Fenton
made some good points, but weakened his own argument at the
end. I was left shaking my head when I read the last line of
the article: "Any perception from the public that the
hospital is mismanaged is wrong, he added."
This is a capital project that is $200
million over budget, is not completed yet, and is definitely
threatening the quality of health care in the community. If
this is not a sign of mismanagement, I would enjoy hearing the
good doctor explain what degree of failure he requires to imply
mismanagement?
Just because this is public money does not
mean that falling asleep at the controls is acceptable.
Finally, some advice: When you want to
forward the argument that we, the public, must fund hospital
services more than we now do, consider that most of us are
capable of basic arithmetic. Calculating the $200 million the
project is over budget, that represents approximately $2 000
for every man, woman and child in this region, assuming we have
100,000 eligible taxpayers. And while most of us have no
difficulty funding medical services, we do have some difficulty
excusing such gross fiscal mismanagement. The $200 million lost
in this act of mismanagement is $200 million we now no longer
have to raise the quality of services.
Frank Buchan,
Sudbury