The plan to replace the Bracebridge and Huntsville hospitals with a new central one is on hold.
The province wants the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare board of directors to reconsider their current plan.
"Mostly because the environment has changed. We have new legislation, like ‘patients first,’" says CEO Natalie Bubela.
A new task force including healthcare professionals and government leaders is collecting feedback online.
They're considering three options:
- Keeping both hospitals and their emergency rooms open, but offering different services at each.
- Having one focus on inpatient care and the other outpatient.
- Building one new centrally located hospital and repurposing the old ones.
"We want to make sure that we have sustainability that we can continue to recruit people who want to work here and that we build a flexible hospital that is going to provide care for the next 50 years,” says Cameron Renwick, task force chair.
In the past, the community has been opposed to the one site option.
“One of the reasons we vacation here is because of the close proximity to the Huntsville hospital. We have our share of medical issues,” one person said.
Maintaining and improving the existing hospitals is something the task force will look at.
"There may be something that comes to the fore as we discussed these proposals that we haven't thought of before but solves even more problems for us," says Huntsville Mayor Scott Aitchison.
The task force will make its recommendation to the hospital's board of directors some time next spring.
A final decision could be made as early as next September.
