Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Bill Bradley
It is a long road to walk.
That is what former Sudbury mayor Jim Gordon told city council Wednesday night concerning resolving the hospital bed shortage at Sudbury Regional Hospital.
Only a comprehensive approach, from involving low cost short term actions to longer term higher cost plans will work, said Gordon, chair of the city's advisory panel on health clusters.
The former mayor and MPP was a parliamentary secretary to two different Conservative health ministers.
Gordon cited a matrix of options in his report to council. Low cost options included supporting seniors to remain in their homes and identifying patients at risk were listed.
More expensive longer range plans such as providing permanent funding for existing long term care facilities at Pioneer Manor and Finlandia were also noted.
“This problem is huge, requiring a extraordinary steps. We need a model developed here locally that we can take to the province and ask for their help in implementing it,” said Gordon.
The alternative is bleak, said Gordon, after recounting the rising number of ALC patients taking up acute beds at the hospital.
“We are now at a tipping point. If we do not take this crisis seriously, if we fail, Sudbury Regional Hospital will become the newest nursing home in Ontario,” said Gordon.
One innovative action is to work with the province to use the Memorial or St. Joseph sites for transitional ALC beds.
“The problem is that existing provincial regulations would require a $15 million investment to renovate the Memorial building, for example. Let's face it, the economic situation is such for the province that it is no longer business as usual.”
Gordon proposed that the stakeholders work to come up with a plan that did not require an expensive renovation.
“We have to come up with a made-in-Sudbury model that is not an ALC or LTC designated facility, thereby circumventing the regulatory requirements of the province. Let us then go to the province and they can tweak what we come up with. I think they will be happy because they desperately need a model like this for many other cities elsewhere in southern Ontario and the north,” he said.
“Let us use the ALC money we get for a more effective purpose in another way.”
Gordon also mentioned bringing in the private sector to be part of the community solution.
“We already have private nursing homes. We need more. I know of some developers who are interested already and want to contribute their talents to this crisis. We have to approach them properly.”
Gordon finished his presentation by repeating the U.S. President-elect Barack Obama mantra “Yes We Can.”
“I was once told we never could get a regional cancer centre or a medical school. But you know what, we did it. So too with this crisis. Yes we can. Now where have I heard that before?”
