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- Our area’s
population is ageing at a rate higher than the provincial level,
putting
pressure on providing such services as cardiac care and long-term care
beds.
- We have a growing seasonal population, which results in higher
expectations and increasing patient volumes. These visitors in our
community increase the incidence of serious injuries that must be dealt
with; boating accidents in the summer, skiing and snowmobiling emergencies
in the winter.
- We face a shortage of doctors, nurses and other health care
professionals.
- Attracting and retaining highly qualified physicians and other health
care professionals is increasingly difficult without up-to-date
facilities and equipment.
- Providing educational opportunities aimed at retaining our health
care professionals is an ongoing challenge for our Hospital.
- We face dramatic changes in medical care such as day surgery
that
require changes in the Hospital’s physical layout and equipment.
- The provincial government has reduced capital funding at a time
when investing in our facilities means investing in our health care
future.
- Our equipment needs to be maintained, upgraded or replaced in the
next few years. The cost of the equipment (some of which is more than
10 years old) is more than $9.7M.
To put it plainly,
our health care future boils down to two very important needs:
- We must ensure that our
facilities and equipment meet our growing needs
- We need to retain and
attract top quality health care professionals to serve our
community's health care needs
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All small communities across Ontario are faced with these same
challenges. We are fortunate here in our community to have a group of
people willing to work towards meeting these challenges.
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