THE DECISION OF THE ROUGE VALLEY HEALTH SYSTEM TO

“TEMPORARILY SHIFT OBSTETRIC AND PAEDIATRIC SERVICE TO THE CENTENARY SITE”

IS AN INCREDIBLY WRONG AND HARMFUL DECISION

Ajax/Pickering Hospital will see the delivery of 2000 babies this year. Centenary Hospital will have about the same number but many of them are from Durham, due to an edict that complicated deliveries go to Centenary.

The Rouge Valley Health System’s data shows that both in the short and long term, Durham residents will have more babies than the Scarborough residents. If there is to be a shift of services, logic says the shift should be to Ajax/Pickering.

The Rouge Valley Hospital Corporation states: "the issue that is forcing the temporary re-location is physician coverage…”

This matter deals with the use of doctors, called “locums” who provide temporary on-call back-up in areas such as paediatrics. The Corporation will have us believe that this is a local situation. It is not. It is common practice in Ontario due to the short supply of paediatricians. The Corporation has decided that it no longer wants to spend the additional money needed to provide this back-up. We have heard the money crunchers on the Board say so.

The Corporation says: “the decision to temporarily move the service was made following the recent resignation of a locum paediatrician who was booked for a significant number of on-call shifts in the month of December…”

The Corporation is going to displace the entire Obstetric and Paediatric Department of Ajax/Pickering Hospital – doctors, nurses, and support staff– because of this!!! Can the Corporation not find paediatrician help from Scarborough ‘temporarily’? We have learned that they haven’t even asked for this help!

The Corporation says: “this decision is about providing safe, quality care – that is a fundamental principle we cannot deviate from…”

Ask the doctors and nurses what they think about the safety and quality of the proposed move. They will tell you that the transfer of the only regional provider of Obstetrical and Paediatric services to an already over-serviced area is unsafe, fiscally unsound, and illogical.

The Corporation goes on to state that: ”additional locums have not been located and efforts and negotiations to recruit permanent paediatricians continue…”

The “Friends” were part of a group which was supposed to work on doctor recruitment. The group met once – in May; no word since! The staff in the Obs/Paed. Department of APH formed a group earlier this year – when the last “temporary closure” edict was issued – to recommend short and long term solutions to these problems. The report of that group has disappeared. Some paediatricians doing “locum” coverage at Ajax/Pickering were interested in full time employment; no action on this came from the Corporation!

“The obstetricians at Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering believe that working without paediatric back-up is unsafe, and we fully support their clinical judgement on that issue, explains the CEO of the Corporation.”

The implication of this quote is that the doctors are supportive of the decision to close the services.

The fact is that, yesterday, the doctors of Ajax/Pickering Hospital unanimously stated their lack of confidence in the administration of the Corporation.

THEN WHY HAS THIS BEEN DONE?

It is a badly misguided attempt to save money.

It covers an unbelievably poor recruiting job by the Chiefs of the Departments involved.

It follows the continuing pattern of Centenary Hospital dominance in the history of the Rouge Valley Health Corporation as planned by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Two matters to ponder.

The Corporation says “there is a lot of community concern about this issue, and there is a lot of mistrust…”

Absolutely correct!

The Corporation says: “this is truly a temporary measure.”

Once the Obstetric and Paediatric Department of Ajax/Pickering Hospital closes, it will never reopen. The morale and wonderful work of the staff, and probably some of the staff members themselves will be lost. Then the dominoes start to fall. Women's health services are gone.

The beginning of the end to Ajax/Pickering Hospital!

THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN

A RALLY

WILL BE HELD

WEDNESDAY DEC. 7 AT 7 PM

AJAX COMMUNITY CENTRE, HMS AJAX ROOM, 75 CENTENNIAL RD.

Many community leaders and a large number of citizens will attend

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Media Contact: Fred Parrott, Friends of Ajax/Pickering Hospital, 905-668-6593