County makes clinic decision in private
Council goes behind closed doors and agrees to spend $187,000 on Port Hope Walk-in Clinic
Downloading the cost of health care from the province to local taxpayers continues to gather steam, sometimes behind closed doors.
Last Wednesday, Northumberland County agreed to spend $187,500 to operate the Port Hope Walk-in Medical Clinic a few days a week. A pilot program with the clinic started in August.
If you’re wondering, well what’s the money actually going to be spent on, how did they arrive at that amount, and what cuts will be necessary to spending elsewhere in the county’s 2025 budget to make space for this unbudgeted expenditure, my short answer to all those questions is that I have no clue.
None of those questions were answered by any of the publicly available material before council on Wednesday. The council agenda included a motion recommending the county contribute $125,000 to the clinic and consider what cuts would be needed elsewhere to pay for it.
I was looking forward to the discussion, but it didn’t happen, at least not in public.
The clinic decision was made in private session and there was no discussion or explanation in public. At 10:03 a.m. Warden Brian Ostrander adjourned the public session and started a private discussion about partnerships and the clinic.
As he adjourned the public session, he said that the motion on the public agenda that came from the community health committee recommending the county spend $125,000 on the clinic would be discussed in private.
Council came back to public session at 10:30 a.m. and for some reason during that half hour had decided to reject the committee’s recommendation and spend 50 per cent more on the clinic.
Full disclosure here: I don’t think municipalities and counties should be paying for health care. It is a provincial responsibility and should be funded by the province and directed province-wide by health-care professionals. Under the Ford government we have fallen into a situation where we are now accepting its under funding of health care and are expecting untrained, local groups to step in on an ad hoc basis to provide minimal care.
From everything I have seen, this results in mediocre and inequitable health care, at best, and results in cuts to funding in other areas that don’t always get identified.
In this case, the county council motion that was passed asked the director of finance to come back with some suggestions about where cuts could be made.
Kate Campbell, Director of Communications for the county, told me the discussions were held in private “in order to address matters pertaining to confidential negotiations (Diverting Funding from 2025 Budget). Due to the meeting being in closed, we’re not able to share any additional information.”
It remains unclear to me why a discussion about diverting public money from a public budget needs to be discussed in private. I also don’t understand why the decision to fund health care in one of the seven local municipalities should be taken behind closed doors.
A report to council said the pilot project was approved by county council following a motion by County Deputy Warden and Mayor of Port Hope Olena Hankivsky. There had been a walk-in clinic in Port Hope at this location for about 20 years, but it closed during COVID.
The report says Northumberland County provides office setup, IT infrastructure, logistics, communications, and administration support. It has partnered with the Community Health Centres of Northumberland County which provides expertise in primary care service delivery, assisting with clinic nursing services, patient information technology and implementation support during the pilot.
A report by Loyalist College calculated that the clinic saved the health-care system about $70,000 in the first six months by diverting some patients from emergency department visits.
The opening of the clinic was supported by donations from the Port Hope and District Health Care Foundation, Port Hope Rotary, Town of Cobourg and Loyalist College. They contributed about $125,000 which the report said was roughly enough for the clinic to operate for a year.
So, you may be wondering why the county is giving the clinic $187,000, if it only needs $125,000. Me too.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories anytime on the website.
Where does Trent Hills council stand on this. Should be equal treatment for all clinics.