NEW HOSPITAL, ACCESS TO DOCTORS, KEY ISSUES

Having access to high-quality health care sits at the top of most people's priority list whenever they head to the polls in a provincial election.

In south Simcoe, the discussion that remains front and centre on the local health-care front is the redevelopment of the community's nearly 60year-old hospital.

Premier Doug Ford visited the facility in mid-March to announce the project would move to the third stage of the redevelopment process. More recently, the province confirmed $6 million in funding to help with the design work associated with the $183-million capitol project.

SMH President and CEO Jody Levac has expectations of the next government to continue working with his team on advancing the project forward.

"The government to date has been very supportive of the 100,000-square-foot wraparound design, but we will face numerous challenges having

an old and new building," he said.

Levac explained what the next government has to do to ensure the project moves forward as smoothly as possible.

"The provincial government should continue to be supportive of a completely revitalized Stevenson Memorial Hospital," he said. "We will continue to work with the Ministry of Health's Capital Branch, and we've already had early engagement with Infrastructure Ontario (IO) on supplemental conditions needed for design. By working with both IO and Capital Branch, we are confident that we will deliver a stateof-the-art health-care facility."

While the redevelopment remains a major focus for Levac, so too does getting through the remainder of COVID-19 pandemic. He said the province will need to keep supporting the hospital on this front.

"We've been funded by the province to continue to operate our COVID-19, Cold and Flu Clinic and are working with primary care to provide this service.

It is a vision of what health-care services will be with both hospital/ acute care and primary care working together to address COVID-19 and future waves. Funding for these clinics must continue."

He said there is much more that needs to be addressed

on the health-care front, like continuing to support the work of the South Simcoe Ontario Health Team (OHT), which includes the COVID@Home program and Heart Failure Remote Management, and the COVID-19, Cold and Flu Clinic.

"Funding for a full team would ensure sustainability for these services for this community," he said.

The management of chronic illness is another pressing matter, he added.

"We will continue to work together with longterm care, home and community care to help manage this issue. The management of surgery delay and backlog is also a pressing matter which will be vital going forward."

Many residents continue to experience long waits for a family physician, noted Bev Nix, chair of the Alliston and Area Physician Recruitment Committee (AAPRC).

She said activities are picking up again for the volunteer committee, after slowing down due to the pandemic.

Some of the group's more recent accomplishments include providing funding to 11 new doctors who set up in town, and also helping to fund upgrades made to the on-call room at the hospital where doctors rest during lengthy shifts.

"We funded that because we felt that was a restriction for some doctors wanting to come work at the hospital," she said.

Nix said they have a lot of ideas to provide doctors incentives to work in the community, but implementing them will require funding. Unfortunately, she said the local municipalities are not providing the same level of funding as they used to.

She said if the province were able to provide a stable source of funding for recruitment committees, this would help achieve the target of bringing an average of two to three new doctors to the area each year.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Simcoe.com decided to delve into various hot-button issues that will be on voters' minds heading into the June 2 provincial election. For this story, reporter Brad Pritchard looked at some of the challenges in local health-care services.