By Thomas Smith

On April 22, 2024, Patrick Porzuczek, founder of Minden Matters and Re-Open the Minden ER went to Queen’s Park to participate in the public hearings on Bill 180.

“On April 20th, 2024 it marked the one year anniversary of the permanent closure of the Minden ER, which came as a surprise to our community. The closure was announced by HHHS without prior notice, public consolation, or opportunity for the community to explore alternative options,” opens Porzuczek.

“Lives are at stake and the underfunding by the government is exacerbating the situation,” says Porzuczek. “It is distressing for residents like us in Minden and the entire catchment area given our rural status. The burden of additional costs for services and reliance on private clinics is particularly challenging in the rural setting which greatly differs from the urban settings.

“FOr myself, the fight is about my daughter. Waiting over 30 minutes for EMS to come to my home, because my daughter was in the middle of a cardiac disturbance is unacceptable. A father on route to Haliburton during a cardiac episode lost his life if the Minden ED was open, there is a great possibility that that life could have been saved as the travelling distance was much shorter. A child at the Canada Day fishing derby had a hook lodged in her eye, only two minutes away from the permanently closed Minden ER, was transported by EMS thirty minutes away,” says Porzuczek.

“Doctors are advising a patient not to summer at their seasonal property in Minden due to lack of emergency care to deal with her and her husband’s health issues if it’s needed. A car accident victim suffered in agonizing pain on the helipad at the now-closed Minden ER. As they waited for Air Orng, this patient could have been treated, stabilized, and medicated prior to transport.”

The closure of the Minden ER had a significant impact on our community, depriving us of quick, accessible, high quality care, especially for our vulnerable population.”

“The Ontario Health Coalition reported 1,199 closures, vital ER departments for the year 2023. How many lives were lost because of these temporary and permanent closures,” asked Porzuczek.

“Just one of these hospitals was a permanent closure. The Minden ER, which has never even had one temporary closure in its history was closed.”

“Your government has just made a commitment to nearly $1,000,000,000 to build two brand new hospitals an hour away, 25 minutes apart from each other while Minden and our county is left without an adequate emergency and healthcare services.”

“The recent Ontario budget, Building a Better Ontario fails to meet the healthcare needs of rural Ontario. The four per cent increase for healthcare in this budget does not allocate sufficient funding for healthcare. It needs to be adjusted to the rate of inflation and account for the aging population,” says Porzuczek. “Spending needs to be drastically increased to six per cent or higher, nor does the new budget embrace the findings and recommendations of the Auditor General’s report on emergency room closures.”

“Their number one conclusion currently: we are unable to ensure continuous availability of timely and patient centred emergency care in Ontario,” says Porzuczek.

“Health care is the heart of the community,” says Porzuczek. “Its broad impact in Minden has seen a negative impact on housing, resale value, tourism, small business prosperity and overall growth of the township. To address these healthcare challengers, immediate action is required. Firstly, the Minden ER should be reopened and without delay. Secondly, a new pilot program should be implemented, utilizing both nurse practitioners and our ER to reduce patient wait times and deviate stress on healthcare professionals, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes. Additionally, a rural doctor program should be established offering incentives and extra certifications and credits in rural healthcare for newly graduating doctors. The same approach can be applied to nurse practitioners facilitating a better understanding of unique dynamics of rural healthcare. Furthermore, efforts should be made to bring back the foreign doctors and Canadian doctors who pursued their education overseas due to the overcrowding of domestic universities. Minden can serve as the platform to gain experience and certification and to reintegrate these doctors into the Canadian and Ontario healthcare system.”

“Lastly, more needs to be done to improve doctor and nurse retention and healthcare professionals in rural Ontario. Particularly in Minden and Haliburton offering better wages, creating dedicated housing for incoming doctors to help remove the barriers and attract healthcare professionals and adapt to rural living.”

“We elected you and we are counting on you to fix rural healthcare, reopen Minden ER. Live depend on it and let’s build a better Ontario,” closed Porzuczek.

“You’ve described it very well. A pro-privatization agenda is not only fiscally irresponsible but it’s also very elitist,” says Terence Kernaghan, MPP of London North Centre.”This Conservative government has taken and continues to take rural Ontario for granted. Nobody likes to be taken or granted. Rural Ontarians are smart and they have a long, long memory.”

“We basically lost our guardian, the mother of our community,” says Porzuczek. “Minden was loved by everybody.”

“I’ve pounded on chests of patients in the Minden ER, I used to be a volunteer firefighter. I’ve also helped stabilize patients in the ER with EMS on route to the hospital. I’ve been directly involved but also involved as a family member and myself. I’ve been cardioverted three times for my own heart disturbance. Having this government force hospital boards to pay unfathomable amounts of money to have agency nurses and doctors to fill shifts, there is no shortage of nurses and doctors that are available.”

“What’s your next step in trying to get this government to reopen Minden ER, like, what’s the next step,” asks Andrea Hazell, MPP of Scarborough-Guildwood.

“We’re gonna keep stepping up. The community is gonna keep rising up and letting the people know. More cities and towns are going to start standing up.”

“A little town in Ontario made such noise that we were heard nationally. The noise is just going to keep getting stronger, especially when these other little towns start to speak up and take a stance for our healthcare,” says Porzuczek.

“What happened in Minden is something we’ve never seen before, quite honestly,” says Catherine Fife, MPP of Waterloo. “Maybe it happened in Fort Erie a long time ago but no consultation whatsoever, even, I think, your mayor was blindsided. No communication, the public was given only six weeks notice, so it was steamrolled through. There is no plan of any substance to ensure that people are safe.”

“The story has changed a few times, right,” asks Fife. “The public statements now from the HHHS CEO Veronica Nelson, beginning shortly after Minden ER was permanently closed now blame insufficient structural based funding for operational challenges and you note that these funding struggles were not disclosed during the Minden ED closure process mere months later. Why do you think the story changed on why Minden closed.”

“The story changed because we need to be a guinea pig,” says Porzuczek. “We need to start somewhere. There is so much happening within Ontario that is focusing on a two tier system: the agencies, privatizations, and what have you. The best way to do it is: let’s start removing the thing that doesn’t really make Ontario money. It’s more of a cost than it is a profit and that’s healthcare. So by removing it and taking away from the people, giving them just a little bit so they can hold onto, it’s disheartening.”

“The Ontario ombudsman deemed a meeting to be illegal and so they deemed that meeting which discussed the decision making process surrounding the decision to close Minden ER, they deemed that meeting to be held in camera, so held behind closed doors when it legally, was not allowed to.”

“Only the board can close a hospital in partnership with the Ministry of Health,” says Jeff Nicholls, team member of Minden Paper. “What can [the CEO] do? They can consolidate. Why did Minden call it a consolidation, because closing the Minden ER with six weeks notice with no consultation would have literally been illegal and would have breached the MSAA that exists between the hospital and the ministry.”

“Using the word consolidation was basically a distraction or bypassed the legality of closing the emergency room within a six week notice. You’re quite right though, if they can do this in Minden, then they can do this to any hospital in Ontario,” says Fife. “I wanted to give you one last message to give to this government other than open Minden ER, which we actually have said we will do, which we will fund healthcare appropriately,” says Fife.