(March 26, 2018)<\/p>\n
By: Mike Adler, toronto.com<\/p>\n
In a pre-election speech, Scarborough-Guildwood MPP Mitzie Hunter stressed Ontario\u2019s Liberal government and its five Scarborough MPPs \u201cwill champion\u201d improvements to the area\u2019s only acute-care hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to listen, and we listen to our communities,\u201d Hunter told staff at Scarborough and Rouge Hospital\u2019s General campus beside another Scarborough Liberal MPP, Soo Wong, on March 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have members that are fighting fiercely for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunter\u2019s announcement that there will be $9 million more in SRH\u2019s budget for 2018 marked the third time in six months Liberals have come to the hospital pledging support.<\/p>\n
A month ago, Hunter said, she and Premier Kathleen Wynne were at SRH Centenary \u201cto announce funding\u201d for remaking the emergency room at that campus.<\/p>\n
However, the premier didn\u2019t do this. She didn\u2019t commit the province to spend money for the ER\u2019s construction, or say when it would start.<\/p>\n
Wynne just said she supported a master planning exercise, launched last year, which should lead to a commitment to build.<\/p>\n
Later on March 23, when asked to clarify, Hunter, minister of advanced education and skills development, confirmed this was what Wynne had done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of the master plan,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cRebuilding the emergency department is part of the overall plan. What we announced was the government\u2019s commitment to rebuilding the emergency department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he ordered the former Rouge Valley Health System to break up and its Centenary campus to merge with The Scarborough Hospital, Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario\u2019s former health minister, appointed experts to tell the province what to do about acute care in Scarborough.<\/p>\n
The panel told Hoskins to build a \u201ccomprehensive\u201d new hospital campus in Scarborough, to remake ERs in Centenary and at SRH Birchmount, and to rebuild the General\u2019s operating rooms, which are Ontario\u2019s oldest and obsolete.<\/p>\n
In April 2016, Hoskins endorsed all the recommendations, but apart from pledging $20 million to improve diagnostic suites at General, and a promise last year to spend an unspecified amount on the Bridletowne Community Hub, the government hasn\u2019t committed itself to see any recommendation through to construction.<\/p>\n
Asked whether replacement of the General\u2019s ORs will start during the government\u2019s next term, Hunter nodded. \u201cWe\u2019ve done the hard work with the expert panel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis problem has to be fixed, and we\u2019re going to fight for that for the people of Scarborough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though SRH CEO Elizabeth Buller called Hunter and Wong \u201chuge advocates for Scarborough and the hospital,\u201d Kingsley Kwok of the Scarborough Health Coalition said residents are waiting for the government to say something about the Birchmount ER.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more than 30 years old. That\u2019s one big thing the people of Scarborough are waiting for,\u201d he said, adding the hospital is inundated with patients it can\u2019t transfer to long-term-care because beds aren\u2019t available.<\/p>\n
The $9 million increase is larger than expected, said Kwok, but the province has cut back hospital funding so much over the last 20 years, \u201cthe government is realizing now they have to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n
A provincial election is scheduled for June 7.<\/p>\n