Weekly meetings are taking place with Ontario Health and internal teams to actively review challenges, explore solutions, and monitor system capacity and patient safety. We are also maintaining open lines of communication with the Ministry of Health to better understand the path forward.

“We know how important local access to labour and delivery services is to the families of Muskoka,” says Cheryl Harrison, President & CEO. “We remain committed to ensuring safe, high-quality obstetrical care for all residents of Muskoka, both now and into the future.”

While emergency care can be accessed at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital (SMMH) Site, all labour and delivery services continue to be provided at the HDMH Site during this temporary transition.

“This is a challenging but necessary step to protect patient safety,” says Dr. Sheena Branigan, Chief of Obstetrics. “Our teams are engaged in thoughtful planning, and I’m optimistic that this collaborative process will help shape a strong and sustainable future for obstetrical care in our region.”

MAHC anticipates having more information to share in the coming weeks.

For any questions about your care plan, please contact your healthcare provider. For general updates, please visit www.mahc.ca or follow them on social media.

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Over the past eight months, construction progress has steadily continued at the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital (HDMH) site, with several key milestones achieved.

After breaking ground last July, some of 2024’s project milestones included site preparation, including significant excavation, followed by pouring of the foundation and flooring. By year’s end, the construction of the super structure and roof was completed.

In January, exterior siding was in place and interior framing had started. Through February, rough-ins of the electrical, mechanical and plumbing were completed and a major planned power outage facilitated connecting the MRI addition to the hospital’s power supply. In March, the MRI cabin room was constructed and radio frequency shielding installed. Meanwhile, drywall in other parts of the MRI Suite was ongoing, as well as flooring, ceilings and painting. Chillers were delivered and installed in April with other ongoing mechanical work, and various furniture needs ordered.

The planning team is preparing for another major milestone with the arrival of the magnet on May 6, and the commencement of staff training. Next steps in construction include IT network cabling, air handler and sprinkler installations, and installation of millwork and other fixtures. Commissioning and testing of the MRI machine is the last phase of work, occurring in June.

MAHC President & CEO Cheryl Harrison and Huntsville Hospital Foundation CEO Katherine Craine went inside the construction site earlier this month for a sneak peek at what’s been going on behind the construction fence. Watch the video on our YouTube channel.

“The MRI addition is more than just bricks and mortar — it’s a powerful step forward in patient care,” says Harrison. “With faster diagnostics, earlier detection, and more comprehensive treatment planning, the new MRI service will bring life-changing benefits to patients across the communities we serve in Muskoka and Almaguin. It’s not just progress — it’s personal.”

As a result of the new MRI service coming on stream, new MRI Technologists have been introduced to the MAHC team, and staffing in other areas such as scheduling and registration, environmental services and diagnostic imaging aides has expanded.

Once opened with patient services this summer, the new local MRI service in Muskoka is estimated to save over 7,000 hours behind the wheel for patients, and spare more than 700,000 kilometres of travel to hospitals outside of our region for an MRI. At maturity, Muskoka and area’s MRI service will complete 5,000 MRI scans locally every year.

The MRI project has not been possible without the incredible support of donors from South River to Orillia and Haliburton to Parry Sound through the Huntsville Hospital Foundation’s Focus on Imaging campaign.

The HDMH Site at MAHC has been a designated District Stroke Centre since 2006 and is currently the only regional stroke program without an MRI under its roof to perform essential studies for patients presenting with critically time-sensitive neurological conditions.

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Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC), in consultation with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, has confirmed the COVID-19 outbreak on North Wing at South Muskoka Memorial Hospital (SMMH) Site is over.

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One immediate step I’ve taken is to form an ALC Housing Working Group, consisting of MAHC, the Muskoka and Area Ontario Health Team, and the District. As many know, about 30% of patients at both hospitals currently are “ALC”, which stands for “Alternate Level of Care”. These are patients who should be living in another type of care facility, or at home, but can’t leave hospital because there isn’t space available in care facilities, the services and supports they need are not available at home, they can’t find the type of housing they need, or they can’t afford to leave hospital – or all of the above. This problem is a failing of the broader health care system, but is particularly severe in Muskoka. This isn’t good for the hospital, for taxpayers, and most of all for the patients themselves. The need for ALC capacity is something everyone recognizes, including health care leaders and community groups.

With MAHC planning two new hospitals and the District planning new housing, now is our chance to do something about it. The goal of the ALC working group will be to come alongside the MAHC hospital planning project with our own joint effort to find, build, and create community solutions to the current ALC capacity concerns across our region in the coming years. More affordable spaces in assisted living buildings, long-term care facilities, and other care environments, means more people can have the care they need in their own communities. It also can free up space in our hospitals to deliver emergency and acute care. It’s a big task, but we have some time as the hospital project will take many years to plan and build.

The working group met for the first time on August 6th and is already reaching out beyond Muskoka to experts and other communities for their best examples of how to tackle this issue. And we’ve started looking at potential projects across Muskoka that can help create ALC capacity both now and in the future. My goal is that together with the hospital redevelopment, this working group can help plan and build a health care system that provides more capacity in both south and north Muskoka, in the type of care environments we need.

I’ll be reporting to District Council and the community through periodic updates and my monthly
Chair’s reports. As someone relatively new to all of this, I’m impressed by the depth of experience and spirit of collaboration that health care leaders are bringing to this. Everyone genuinely wants to improve the system and build better health care for Muskoka, even if they don’t always agree. We can get good things done here if we keep our eyes on the goal.”

Jeff Lehman,
Muskoka District Chair

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“We are looking forward to the discussion at July’s Regular Council Meeting and anticipate supporting the current healthcare redevelopment plan,” Notes Mayor Nancy Alcock. “Huntsville has been a strong voice at the table right from the beginning and will continue to be engaged in discussions that will support superior healthcare for the entire catchment area. As the deadline for submission approaches, it is critical to recognize all of the efforts our stakeholders have made to date to advance the future of healthcare services in our region, resulting in a proposal that goes beyond bricks-and-mortar and focuses on sustainable healthcare support for the entire catchment area.”

The Town of Huntsville will continue to actively participate in the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare’s hospital planning process and support ongoing dialogue amongst all of the stakeholders to ensure the formation of the final plans for the Ministry of Health submission this fall are reflective of the needs of the communities in which the two sites will serve for many years to come.

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Community members attended to advocate for their concerns regarding Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare’s Made-In-Muskoka healthcare system plans.

Attendees held signs and signed petitions.

“Today’s rally is just another demonstration of the communities commitment to their doctors, nurses and support staff,” said Jason Cole, Vice Chair of the Save South Muskoka Hospital Committee. “Save South Muskoka Hospital Committee, is committed to the model that our doctors support. We will continue to advocate day in and day out until the doctors and the communities they live in are heard.”

The new healthcare system will result in service changes at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital in Bracebridge and the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital.

In an open letter penned in January, a number of physicians also expressed concerns regarding negative patient outcomes associated with hospital transfers, and the recruitment and retention of medical professionals.

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The post MAHC Considers Proposing More Beds For Bracebridge Site appeared first on Muskoka411.

“Muskoka residents are privileged to live in a beautiful community. Yet, the proposal from Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) to cut and transfer services out of Bracebridge has ignited a solidarity among residents and the nurses who provide care that is uplifting to witness. 

Under the guise of reducing duplication of services, the MAHC plan is to cut an intensive care unit bed from Bracebridge, cut acute care beds from 67 to 18, move the rest of acute care to the Huntsville site, and cut obstetrics services – including the labour and delivery plan – from Bracebridge. Surgical services in Bracebridge will be limited to mostly day surgeries for outpatients. With this proposal, the Huntsville hospital will lose its Chemotherapy department, which will be moved to the South Muskoka Site. 

Local registered nurses (RNs) and health-care professionals are fighting these cuts just as passionately as other residents are, right alongside neighbours, family, friends – and patients. 

I am a proud registered nurse serving the communities of Muskoka for 22 years and currently the Bargaining Unit President of Ontario Nurses’ Association Local 17, where I represent more than 200 RNs at MAHC. Muskoka has been my home for 24 years. My five grandchildren were all born in Muskoka hospitals.

I have worked as an Intensive Care Unit RN at MAHC for 13 years. I have also worked at the bedside in the obstetrics unit in South Muskoka and at the Huntsville site in the ER and Med-Surg, both before and after the amalgamation of the two hospitals.

Being an RN or health-care professional comes with enormous responsibilities, and we all take them very seriously. Obstetrical nurses are educated, skilled, knowledgable and dedicated. I know that it is a privilege to be present as an obstetrics nurse as individuals become families, help labouring women through the experience of giving birth, and help couples and families transition from birth to home by providing quality post-partum care and building a trusting, therapeutic relationship. The proposal to close the obstetrics unit at the Bracebridge site disappoints and horrifies us, for many reasons.   

Closure means that parents-to-be face a 41-km or longer drive to the Huntsville site. Is it fair to have to drive that far, in possibly stormy and hazardous driving conditions, to give birth? The Board’s proposal to move OB services is contrary to the evidence about safety – the Journal of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology says that, “Women who reside in rural and remote communities in Canada should receive high-quality maternity care as close to home as possible.”  

When I lived in Parry Sound, I gave birth to five children, all delivered safely in a rural hospital that has fewer babies delivered in one year than either hospital in Muskoka has. I know firsthand how important it is to have maternity care close to home – from my professional and personal experience.

If the hospital’s proposal moves forward, there will be a huge cascade effect, including cuts of further services such as surgical and emergency services. Women’s health care will suffer, and more family doctors will consider leaving.   

Women in the South Muskoka area will face increased risks from having to deliver their babies outside the community, including social/psychological stress, financial strains, and more. If the cuts proceed, there is a high likelihood of Bracebridge staff cuts, at a time when the nursing shortage has surpassed crisis levels. 

Huntsville is facing cuts to diagnostic imaging procedures, chemotherapy treatments, endoscopies and surgical and procedural visits. Perhaps the provincial government plans to send these patients to the corporate, for-profit private clinics it is touting, at a much higher cost to taxpayers? 

Alongside residents, I have participated in town halls. My colleagues and I are dismayed and disappointed at the employer’s proposal of the ‘Made in Muskoka’ model. 

I want to be clear: both Huntsville and Bracebridge need and deserve full health-care services. Your RNs support our community in the fight to say NO to these proposals. As those on the front lines, we have been doing more with less for too long. Good care is local care and we stand with you to fight for our community’s health. 

‘Made in Muskoka’ or made elsewhere, this proposal is simply bad medicine. Don’t give up the fight to save local services.”

The post Nurses Know Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare Cuts Must Be Stopped, Vow To Continue To Fight Alongside Residents appeared first on Muskoka411.

Just last week we announced the future location where we plan to build a new hospital in Bracebridge. Also in December, we were encouraged by Infrastructure Ontario’s December 2023 Market Update that indicates our redevelopment project could officially start with contract execution in 2029.

We are fortunate to have the financial commitment of our local communities, the Ministry of Health and our Hospital Foundations to build the best future for health care for everyone we serve. These milestones are all great news to demonstrate our project is on track!

Planning the programs and services for our new hospitals in the future has been an iterative process over the past several months. It has given us opportunity to consider changes in the healthcare environment, advances in technology, and how we could continue to transform Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare that will ensure a sustainable healthcare system for decades to come. One that will position us to expand services to our communities and solve current challenges, some recently amplified by the pandemic such as ongoing staff shortages that contribute to frequent service disruptions.

More than 250 subject matter experts (staff, credentialed staff, volunteers, patient experience partners, hospital leaders and key healthcare partners) have gathered together as User Groups to explore different service delivery models. They have been working to define the future scope of programs and services and projected future volumes, and identify opportunities to leverage technology and improve their workflow while also looking at how we can close existing gaps in service.

As we worked through our planning process, it became clear this past fall with preliminary costing of new hospitals that replicating the existing status quo model is not viable. With drastic cost inflation that has driven healthcare building costs up nearly 50% in just the last year, it’s crucial that we develop an affordable future, not only in what we build but also in how we operate services to end repeated annual budget deficits.

Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare is committed to a creative solution for the future that looks forward instead of back with new hospitals that are built green and are flexible in design. Where our two sites are complementary to each other rather than identical, both providing 24/7 Emergency Department care, and inpatient beds tailored to how we will provide care in the future.

Together, we are investing in and building Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare and through innovation and partnerships we will expand the healthcare services we can provide both within and beyond our walls to bring care closer to home in outlying areas of the region.

User Groups are still working through the final pieces of a Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare solution to meet the needs of Muskoka and area decades from now and ensure our hospitals survive and thrive. As that work wraps up, I am looking forward to sharing the details later this month of how we will deliver Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare to all our communities; healthcare that is focused on excellence, quality care and long-term sustainability for the next 40 and 50 years.” – Cheryl Harrison, President and CEO at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare.

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