Sir: I once again find it very interesting to read the letter to the editor in The Chatham Voice dated May 26 from Jane Havens, Chair of the Public General Hospital Board in response to my rantings to every local media outlet on the local health care issue which supports the closure of the Sydenham Campus ER. I’m not really sure she understands my uninformed, uneducated statements and claims, so I will try to help her out a bit, if I can.
Unlike Blenheim, Ridgetown, Tilbury, Erieau and apparently most of Essex County we have an Emergency Department already in our Wallaceburg community. None of the communities you mention are having any of their access to emergency room care changed. None of them are being told that they have to drive further to get to an emergency department before their loved ones can start to receive care in a hospital environment. How does the fact that other communities have to drive or have a significant amount of time to get to an emergency room make it wrong for us to have ours?
As to your question, “Is the death rate higher for those residents living in Blenheim, Ridgetown, Tilbury and Erieau,” in all likelihood if they had access to closer emergency room care their death rate could be lower. Unfortunately these are statistics we will never have as they do not have emergency room care right within their communities to make this comparison.
Most people make choices as to where they wish to live being fully aware of the health care services for their area. The residents in our Wallaceburg, Walpole Island, South St. Clair and area chose to build a hospital in 1959 because we wanted to have our health care, especially our emergency room health care closer, something none of the communities you have mentioned chose to do.
So why are you trying to compare them to our situation here? They are not being asked to change anything in relation to how they receive emergency care when needed. But yet we are and you see it wrong for us to question the Capital Plan?
The co-ordinated effort you refer to between ambulances, fire and hospitals that makes sure someone who is experiencing an emergency gets to the very best place for care has been in place and continues to work well in Chatham-Kent. How does closing the Sydenham Campus ER improve this excellent co-ordinated care which is already in place?
I stand by my statement, “The closure of the Sydenham Campus ER would represent a significant reduction in emergency health care access to over 20,000 citizens no matter how you try to package it.” If you close the Sydenham Campus ER and tell me to drive 22 kilometres to the next available emergency room for my health care, you have reduced my access.
I fully agree with your statement that “the health care debate sparks a lot of passion in individuals and communities, but logic and reason must also come to the debate every once in a while.” We only wish you had followed your own advice when drawing up your Capital Plan.
Doug Babbitt
Wallaceburg
