Reacting to comments made by Health and Long Term Care Minister George Smitherman, Ward 5 Councillor Ron Dupuis said health care in Greater Sudbury is beyond the crisis level.
In an interview with CBC Radio this week, Smitherman said he is not happy with the situation at the hospital.
“I’m very, very disappointed with the circumstance where the board decides to pay the chief executive officer more and more, but the performance of the hospital does not look to be responding,” Smitherman said.
“We’ve added almost 40 percent more long-term care beds in the Sudbury community. We’ve recently given them hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional resource for the purpose of the emergency room. We’ve added more funding there every year but nothing seems to be getting the job done.”
Smitherman was responding to concerns raised by Dr. Miguel Bonin about the hospital's old equipment, overcrowded facilities and behind-schedule capital construction project.
“When I hear the minister say something like that, it scares me,” Dupuis said.
The councillor invited Dr. Chris McKibbon, chief of staff at Sudbury Regional Hospital, to address city council at the next priorities meeting Feb. 7 so council could get a better understanding about the daily struggles staff and patients at the hospital face.
Catherine Matheson, general manager of community development for the city, said McKibbon has already indicated an interest in speaking to council about the problems at the hospital.
