Miramichi News: Horizon Visit to City Hall Gets Heated

MIRAMICHI - In front of a standing room only crowd of hospital workers, doctors and local politicians, Horizon Health Network Donald Peters, answer questions from the mayor and city council, tried to reassure Miramichiers about the future of health care in the region.

And while Peters said there are no plans to change the regional status of the hospital and layoff notices are being blown out of proportion, that didn't seem to reassure the crowd, especially after Dr. Gerald Losier spoke, raising concerns of his own.

Emotions then boiled over outside council chambers and out onto the sidewalk in front of city hall, where local politicians were confronted by angry health care workers.

It all began with a question and answer session between Mayor Gerry Cormier and Peters. Cormier raised a number of concerns and questions and Peters seemed open and willing to answer.

Of chief concern to most of the spectators at the event, wearing their white t-shirts proclaiming no cuts to health care, were layoff notices issues by Horizon. Peters said just because those notices were sent out, doesn't mean people will lose their jobs.

Peters said much of the concern seems to have been raised by the term “layoff.” He said under the collective bargaining agreement with the union, that is a term he must use.

“By law, if I'm gonna change one position, just one in the entire organization called Horizon, of 13 thousand employees, I have to serve a layoff notice,” Peters said. “Even though the odds are that person will never, ever be laid off, that's the language in the collective agreement and we are bound by the collective agreement to use that language.”

He said he and union members have spoke and they agree it is bad language.

Peters told council that in order to balance the health network's $1.1 billion dollar budget, he has to find $14 million to cut.

“The last thing, the very last thing anyone wants to do is look at job losses of any size shape or form I don't care what union it is, I don't care who it is. But you get to a point in health care where something like 75 percent of all of our dollars are people. Health care is a people industry,” he said.

He said that doesn't mean there won't be positions cut. He explained that Horizon loses 800 to 1000 workers each year through retirement, women deciding to stay home after having children, people moving or accepting other jobs, and for other reasons.

As a result he said if a position is eliminated, that person could be moved into another vacated position, provided they are qualified and want the job. He then reassured people job cuts are not planned.

“Right today, as I stand in front of you right now, there are no job losses for the Miramichi. None. And I want to make that clear. Because all I hear is rumours, all i hear is innuendo and people throwing things around,” Peter said.

“But let me qualify that,” Peters added. “That's at this stage. Finding $14 million you aren't going to find it over night.”

On the issue of removing regional status for the Miramichi Regional Hospital, the CEO said he hasn't been discussed.

“I can tell you that in four years or so, almost four years, no one in the previous government, not this government, has ever discussed with me or mentioned to me the possibility that Miramichi would not remain as the Miramichi regional hospital,” he said.

On the subject of two Miramichiers being removed from the Horizon board, Peters said he has nothing to do with that and could not answer. On the issue of him now reporting directly to Health Minister Madeline Dube, he said he has not been made aware of that.

Earlier in the session he was asked about a study being done with regard to trauma services at the hospital in Bathurst. Peters said that was the case with the goal of looking of what Bathurst needs to function as a permanent level 3 trauma centre.

Trauma centers are ranked from five to one, with one being the best. Currently level 3 status floats between Miramichi, Bathurst and Campbellton, depending on the scheduling of specialists. The study, by Waymark Network Inc., is a follow up to one by the Hay Group that recommended a permanent level 3 trauma centre be set up in Bathurst.

When asked by Cormier if he was aware this study could result in level 3 trauma services being centralized in Bathurst, Peters said he wasn't aware that was the plan.

“No I haven't heard that. I think the intent of the study, my understanding is, the intent of they study is to look at what Bathurst needs in order to provide service for the north whether it be orthopedic or general surgery or 24/7 radiology,” he said.

He was then asked if making Bathurst a permanent trauma 3 center would affect Miramichi's status.

“That would depend, I suppose, on what the outcome of the study is. I could guess that. I couldn't even hesitate to answer that. I just don't know,” he said.

But while Peters wouldn't speculate, someone else there for the meeting was willing to do so. Dr. Gerard Losier was asked by Cormier to take the podium to share his concerns. He said if the study, which is due in the fall, results in a permanent level 3 trauma centre in the North, it would affect negatively in Miramichi.

“They're looking at Bathurst critically to see what kind of support that they would need to reach a trauma centre 3, a level 3, for the North. And that would mean if they did get that, that they would become the trauma centre for the North,” Losier said.

“You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out,” he continued. “We would send everything that was a trauma level 3 to Bathurst. They would bypass us from Tracadie, Shippagan, Rogersville, from the Miramichi and they would go directly to Bathurst.”

On the subject of changing the network boundaries to remove Rogersville, Baie Ste. Anne and Neguac from Horizon and into Vitalite Health Network, Losier said that would reduce the regional population for the hospital and affect the status, even though patients would still use the local hospital.

“I know this has nothing to do with Mr. Peters and it's government issues, but these people, even if you change the boundaries, are still going to come to Miramichi. I have countless patients that come from Rogersville, countless patients that come from the Baie and Neguac and they do not want to go to Bathurst as their predominate regional hospital,” he said.

Following the meeting, Miramichi-Bay du Vin Liberal MLA Bill Fraser said he was glad Losier spoke and shared his concern about the downgrading of the hospital.

“If we go down to a level 5 trauma centre from a level 3, and our boundaries are changed so that our Francophone communities are not within our boundaries, it's quite clear we're not going to have a regional hospital. How could we?” Fraser said. “We know that a level 5 trauma centre is very similar to what is in Sussex, the Sussex Community Health Centre, a band aid station. And I tell you I'm not prepared to allow that to happen in this community.”

After the meeting, when asked about Losier's comments, Peters fumbled for his words and then said he liked some of what the doctor said.

Also in attendance were local Progressive Conservative MLAs. In attendance were Rogersville-Kouchibouguac MLA Bertrand LeBlanc, Southwest Miramichi MLA Jake Stewart and Miramichi MLA, Solicitor General and Public Safety Minister Robert Trevors.

In an interview Tuesday morning, Stewart questioned why Losier was allowed to speak but local politicians weren't. He said while he had great respect for Losier as doctor, he felt his comments were partisan.

“Why weren't the politicians not allowed to come to the podium? That's my issue. If anyone else is permitted to speak, we should be allowed to speak,” he said saying he felt like a sitting duck.

Following the Horizon presentation most of the people there left council chambers, but they didn't go home. Out in the lobby and then onto the sidewalk, health workers and others pepper Stewart and Trevors with questions and criticism. At home point Stewart said an woman twice shoved him and he had to ask her not to touch him.

Many CUPE workers expressed their frustration and demanded assurances from the politicians that cuts would not be made, while raising concerns for their jobs and the status of the hospital. Many raised the proposed cuts by the Bernard Lord Government in 2004.

“I don't want to talk about Bernard Lord anymore. I don't know anything about it,” Stewart told those questioning him about it. He said he was elected to look after the concerns of Miramichi.

“I don't want Bathurst to get more than Miramichi,” he told the crowd.

Of all those who spoke outside city hall, few were as fired up as Dr. Sanjay Siddhartha, who demanded assurances from Trevors.

“I just want an assurance from you,as the only representative of Miramichi that sits in the cabinet, that there will be no downgrade here, there will be no downgrade here, there will be no downgrade here!” he said, his voice rising each time he repeated the line.

Trevors countered that the regional status would not be changed. But the doctor continued to challenge the MLA.

“You are the one who is sitting around the cabinet. The only representative of the Miramichi,” Siddhartha said. “Do you give us an assurance that there will be no cut backs in the Miramichi Hospital? Yes or no?”

“Under Robert Trevors, yes, but I can't guarantee it,” Trevors started to say before being interrupted by Fraser who stepped into the fray.

“Can you guarantee it Bill? Can you guarantee it?" Trevors said face-to-face with Fraser.

"I can tell you that for the past four years there wasn't one cut back to the Miramichi hospital. Nothing but improvements," Fraser countered.

The two men then bickered over the MRI machine and other issues.

"If your government had of represented my area better i wouldn't have had to run because we would have had an MRI, we would have had more services," Trevors said.

Stewart and Fraser also got into a heated argument, but the harsh words between the politicians didn't sit well with the people around them, some of who asked the opposing MLAs to work together instead of arguing.

Eventually the crowd thinned and the MLAs left, many expressing as much frustration as when they arrived.

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