East Ottawa Star
Published: Friday, September 4, 2009 The next step for the health hub Two weeks ago I provided an update on the health hub that will come to our community, most likely by 2011 if all goes according to plan. Since then the response from neighbours and readers has fallen into one of two categories. Category one has been along the lines of, “Great, we’re getting a mini-hospital, it’s about time.” And category two has asked, “What services will be in this health hub thingy and who is providing them?” In response, hospitals are big places that cost big bucks to build and even bigger bucks to run. Hospitals care for really sick people over short periods of time. Hospitals perform complex surgeries in operating theatres with multidisciplinary surgical teams. Hospitals co-locate leading doctors and researchers to push the frontiers of science from lab bench to bedside. That’s not what we are getting in Orléans, not even in miniature form. That’s because hospitals only serve 10 to 20 per cent of the population. We need a facility to serve the other 80 per cent and better provide our front line, everyday, primary care needs. Enter the health hub. A place where services such as dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation, diagnostic imaging, day surgery, pain management, geriatric care and addiction counselling (and this list is not exhaustive) will be provided. Of course it all looks good on paper, but the question of who will deliver what services is important and is not one to be easily glossed over. And with all due respect to the various institutions, agencies and dedicated professionals who will be involved in the health hub, in health care – just as in other areas of considered collaboration between public agencies – the result can either be cooperation or conflict. On the positive side, the inaugural list of organizations that will be involved with the hub – the first of its kind in Ontario – is impressive. It includes: Hôpital Montfort, the Ottawa Hospital, CHEO, Orléans Urgent Care Centre, Champlain CCAC, the City of Ottawa and Bruyère Continuing Care. And you can bet more organizations will want to locate within the hub as well over time. The challenge for these groups is to ensure that patients, when necessary, can move seamlessly from a cancer service provided by one hospital to nutrition or psycho-social counselling provided by another agency as easily as you can move from one store in the mall in to another, or even more to the point, from one aisle in the grocery store to the next. No bureaucracy, minimal paper and someone to help guide you if need be. And it will have to be more than the hospital style of, “Here’s your chart, follow the black line down the hall to x-ray and tighten your smock, I can see your underwear.” This leads to a question – with these groups and agencies now working to scope out who will provide what services, who is ensuring these discussions are focused, productive and result in cooperation and not conflict? Who is looking out for us? = = = = = Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca. |