Friends of the Ajax Pickering Hospital
68 Hills Road, Ajax, Ontario L1S 2W4
December 4, 2008
Foster Loucks, Chair
and Members of the Board
Central East LHIN
Suite 204A, 314 Harwood Avenue South
Ajax, Ontario
L1S 2J1
Dear Chair Loucks and Members of the Board,
The Friends of the Ajax Pickering Hospital support very strongly the Central East LHIN providing immediately additional operating funds for twenty-nine additional medical beds at Ajax Pickering Hospital as requested by the Board of the RVHS. Indeed the Friends have been urging a significant increase in the number of medical beds for this hospital ever since the Friends was formed in 2003. Medical beds have not kept up with the population growth in our communities.
Many more medical beds are needed now
to reduce wait times;
to provide appropriate care in a timely manner for patients needing acute care beds;
to provide emergency services for the growing number of citizens in Ajax, Pickering and Whitby who do not have family physicians and little prospect of obtaining family physician services, and that medical beds will be available as required;
to serve the growing medical bed needs of the huge population growth in Ajax, Pickering and Whitby since 1998.
The Friends regret very much that the RVHS Board and the Central East LHIN have eliminated the twenty-nine in-patient Mental Health beds at Ajax Pickering Hospital thus devastating Mental Health Services for the mentally ill in Ajax, Pickering and Whitby.
The Friends urge the Central East LHIN and the RVHS Board to add immediately not only the necessary medical beds at Ajax Pickering Hospital, but also to restore the twenty-nine Mental Health in-patient beds. A major aspect of the Phase I Redevelopment Project was to provide, as part of the renovation plan, twenty-nine state-of-the-art Mental Health beds and services.
In conclusion, to serve fairly and equitably the health needs of all patients, the Ajax Pickering Hospital emphatically requires now at least twenty-nine additional medical beds as well as the restoration of the twenty-nine Mental Health beds.
Sincerely,
Yvonne Bosch Bill Parish
Co-Chair Co-Chair
cc: Janet Ecker, Chair and Members of the Board, RVHS