A $1.2-million hospital grant request may need some surgical fine-tuning before consideration is given by Wellington County council.
The request, received by the county administration, finance and personnel committee, sparked considerable discussion at the March 28 council meeting about the creation of a hospital committee.
Councillors Lou Maieron and Ken Chapman raised concerns about the request from North Wellington Health Care (NWHC) and the establishment of a committee to review hospital funding requests by municipalities.
The $1.2-million request from North Wellington is for upgrades to hospitals in Mount Forest and Palmerston and will be considered by hospital committee members Warden Chris White and councillors John Green, George Bridge, Ray Tout, Dennis Lever and Joanne Ross-Zuj.
“I have a serious problem with this,” Maieron told council, referring to the request being considered by a committee without full representation of county council.
White said the intention of setting up the committee was to look at the specific request and possibly a future county policy. The warden said having all of county council represented on the committee level to look at the request would make rendering a decision “impossible.”
“It’s impossible to get this thing on the road with everybody on this committee,” White said.
“The intention of the committee is to fact find. At the end of the day these policies would come back to county council for discussion.”
Chapman said hospital grants could open the door for more requests in an area the county has previously not been involved in. It could also include requests from Guelph hospitals that serve the southern portion of the county.
“We all have to realize the taxpayer has no money,” said Chapman.
White replied, “This hospital thing is complicated. All we’re trying to do is take a look at the issue.”
The county has made a $5 million commitment to the new hospital planned for construction in Fergus, the warden said in an interview with the Advertiser after the county council meeting.
He said the hospital committee – the decision to create the committee was approved in a recorded vote on March 28 (Maieron and Chapman voted against) – will give consideration to the county’s role in funding hospitals. White said the county has not had a policy to fund hospitals.
Beside specific funding for Groves, the county has paid $75,000 to Guelph General for a specific piece of equipment. The warden noted Erin residents do use the Orangeville hospital for services, which was pointed out at county council by the two councillors.
The decision to establish a committee to look into county funding of hospital projects comes after county received two letters requesting the grant. The first letter was received in 2011 and the second, signed by NWHC chairman David Craig and president and CEO Jerome Quenneville, was received on March 6.
“To date, we have not received a response to this request,” the pair wrote in their most recent letter.
“The Mount Forest Louise Marshall Hospital Foundation is in the process of preparing for a major fundraising effort to meet the local share of the major capital project being planned, and the county’s support is being anticipated to play a major role in this effort.”
The letter continued, “The county’s past commitment to the Groves Memorial Community Hospital is commendable and we are proud partners in working with them in delivering care in the rural area. That being said, we also have an expectation of similar support for the major capital redevelopments being considered for the Mount Forest and Palmerston North Wellington Health Care sites.”
“If the county considers hospital funding…where do you draw the line?” White asked on Monday.
