Hospital stakeholders must be vigilant

Recently the PECM Hospital Foundation announced that they had chosen their new Executive Director, Penny Rolinski. Penny feels that she can make a difference because she was born at our local hospital as Penny Taylor, most of her family has received care there and she feels that as she has moved back into the area with her husband and daughter she has a vested interest in the future of our local hospital.
The quote that Penny made in the local media recently that got my attention was “What gives me hope is that people here care so much about the hospital. There always has to be a hospital in Prince Edward County. We’re too isolated from anywhere else. ”

Penny absolutely echoes my sentiments. For the last 15 years as numerous services have been removed from our hospital I have been saying that it is incumbent on us as residents of this beautiful County to ” Stand up for our local hospital.” In other words if you see that yet more services are being taken away speak up about it and don’t be afraid to do so.
Another hospital in the QHC group, Trenton Memorial is doing just that. Their very active advocacy group OUR TMH is organizing pickets at Trenton and at QHC headquarters in Bellevile coupled with attending all candidates meetings and QHC Board meetings in the next month.

There is a strong possibility that they may lose major services. This community is fiercely protective of their hospital and are considering all options. Make no mistake, as the provincial government has changed the funding formula to some hospitals Quinte Healthcare will have no choice but to look for ways to create savings. This is a time when we as stakeholders in this community (and as Trenton has) become very vigilant.

We are very fortunate to have an award winning hospital in our community. The very dedicated staff have made that possible. Hopefully when Penny and Briar of the Foundation organize a fund raising event to help purchase state-of-the-art equipment for our local hospital you will consider giving a donation.

On a final note, I for one wish outgoing Foundation Executive Director Hazel Lloyst every success in her creative writing ventures. Foundation Chair Leo Finnegan was indeed correct when he stated that Hazel “pushed the Foundation forward with several new ideas.”

Fran Renoy
Picton