Mayoral candidate John Rodriguez is not a doctor, but he wants a diagnosis about what's gone wrong with the health care system in the city.
If he's elected Nov. 13, Rodriguez will set up a panel of local experts to write a report on our health-care woes and how to fix them. He'll then bring the list to the province with the help of local MPPs Rick Bartolucci and Shelley Martel.
“That's the role of a mayor. That's the role of leadership. Leadership is to go to those who are reponsible for health care and distributing the money,” he said.
“We have a crisis here in Sudbury, make no mistake about that. We need someone to take the reins and lead this community forward.”
Rodriguez got the idea from a community stakeholders report released in September about the future of the mining industry in Greater Sudbury. He'll call the health care report Enough! Health Care is Our Right.
Standing outside the bus stop in front of the emergency department at the St. Joseph's Health Centre, the former schoolteacher and New Democrat Nickel Belt MP said we need more long-term care beds in Greater Sudbury.
Hospital officials wouldn't let Rodriguez hold the press conference directly on hospital property because they were worried patients would be filmed without their permission.
The hospital has been taking care of chronically ill and disabled people while they wait for long-term and convelescent care, resulting in cancelled surgeries and overcrowding in the emergency room. As of Friday, there were 91 of these patients in the hospital.
Greater Sudbury is being “shortchanged” by the province, said Rodriguez.
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care George Smitherman announced 10 more interim long-term care beds for the city during a visit to the Northern Ontario School Medicine in September, but the beds haven't been implemented yet, he said.
These beds should be opened by the beginning of November, according to ministry officials.
The government also announced 40 additional interim long-term care beds last January. All of these beds have since been opened.
Rodriguez said he'll also demand that seven nurse practitioners who can't find work in the city be employed by the province.
The health care professionals could solve some of the problems associated with the family doctor shortage in the city because they can do about 80 percent of the work done by physicians.
City council passed a resolution earlier this month promising to lobby the province to fund a local community clinic where nurse practitioners could provide health care.
Rodriguez will also demand to know exactly when construction on the one-site hospital will finally be completed.
Provincial officials announced a year ago construction on the hospital will re-start sometime in 2006, and be completed in 2008 or 2009. Work on the one-site building was abandoned in 2001 after capital costs ballooned to three times the original figure.
“I don't know when it will be completed. Do you know? This is 2006. If it's 2009, it's not good enough. If it's 2008, it's not good enough.”
Rodriguez also praised several local health-care initiatives, including the medical school and cancer centre. He said Sudbury Regional Hospital officials have done a good job of pulling the institution out of debt.
The candidate was joined by former Greater Sudbury mayor Jim Gordon, who is endorsing Rodriguez.
We need a leader who is going to stand up and demand the province address health-care issues in the city, said Gordon.
“Rodriguez is right . . . When everybody is going to the province and saying 'Gimme, gimme,' you have to go to the province with some very well crafted suggestions. You need to take them the answers. Down in Toronto they don't have a clue as to what our problems are.”
Rodriguez can be reached at 969-1021.
