If the Town of Innisfil wants to see a hospital built in its community, it needs to use its outdoor voice.
“If we really want this to happen, if we want to make this reality, we have to shout louder than everyone else,” Mayor Lynn Dollin said at the Nov. 13 council meeting.
Council received a presentation from Gail Hunt, president and chief executive officer of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) at the meeting, the latest in what’s become a fall tradition for the town.
But the excitement that met the October 2021 visit, where council approved RVH’s request to support a minster’s zoning order (MZO) that could speed up the development of a second hospital campus, has dimmed slightly by the delays in getting the project officially approved by the provincial Ministry of Health (MOH).
The need for the new campus and expansion of RVH’s legacy home in Barrie hasn’t dissipated. If anything, it's increased.
“As we look at the population growth, in conjunction with the increasing needs of our patients — both present and future — it is evident we need to make progress on moving this vital project forward,” Hunt told councillors. “We have developed a costed, efficient, re-phased plan that prioritizes urgent needs, meeting our growing population demands, and aligns with our clinical priority plan to grow existing and add new programs.”
In March 2022, RVH submitted its proposal and business case for its expansion plans to the MOH, with no response from the ministry. Hunt is somewhat understanding; she knows there are fiscal constraints currently in the province that make it difficult to commit millions of dollars for an essential need, such as health care.
And that puts the MOH in a precarious position, as Barrie and Simcoe County are far from the only communities in the province looking to improve their existing hospitals or bring new facilities online.
“(The) province continues to see the number of major projects grow due to aging infrastructure population growth and the rising complexity of health challenges that people face but the resources to fund these projects are not growing at a comparable level to the demand for the services given the space constraints and increasing needs we're experiencing,” Hunt said.
“When I say our plans, I mean all of us, to serve the residents of South Simcoe and throughout the region,” she continued. “We all have a vested interest in moving forward to ensure the care we need is available close to home.”
Under the new plan approved by RVH in September and submitted to the MOH, the Barrie campus would see expansion occur in phases over the next three to six years, with additional work being completed beyond a 10-year window.
That decade-out window would also encompass seeing a full-service hospital come online in Innisfil on the property near the intersection of Yonge Street and Innisfil Beach Road.
However, a health hub would be built on the site first, operational within five to eight years, as outlined in the revised business plan. The hub would include an urgent-care centre, day-surgery capacity, a diagnostic centre with medical imaging and laboratory outpatient clinics and 180 new post-acute transitional beds.
“Having these services available in Innisfil will help alleviate some of the pressures on the Barrie campus and create more capacity in the system as a whole,” Hunt said.
She also reassured council how the two campuses are intertwined in RVH’s planning.
“It is important to remember that we cannot proceed without the other,” Hunt said. “Both campuses will work together to relieve mounting pressures across our region, ensuring we can continue to support our hospital partners and enhancing access to care for our rapidly growing communities.”
Hunt’s presentation was equal parts an update and a call to action. She stressed to councillors that the government needs to hear from the community how much of a priority the expansion of RVH is to Innisfil and the surrounding areas.
“We all realize the importance of building a regional health care system to address the needs of these growing and diversifying communities,” she said. “We can make progress more effectively if we have some critical mass behind our plans. We need people who understand our plan and realize the necessity of it becoming a reality.”
Health Minister Sylvia Jones, who's also the province's deputy premier, said last week the province has no timetable for the expansion of RVH.
Dollin took Hunt’s words to heart. In the meeting, she acknowledged the town is doing its part to see the Innisfil campus become a reality, but needs to do more, as “every other community is doing it as well.”
A notice of motion has been given as part of the Nov. 27 regular council agenda, where Dollin will look for council’s backing in sending a letter to Jones, “expressing the town’s unwavering support for the RVH expansion.”
The motion calls for the letter to be circulated to several other members of provincial parliament, including Premier Doug Ford, as well as neighbouring south Simcoe County municipalities, looking for their support in the matter.
