Save Our Hospital - Its already been Six Years

Six years ago, June 24th 2004, seven bus loads from Georgetown and one bus load from Acton and many others drove to a rally at Queens Park to Save Our Hospital. What a six weeks it was. It all started with a press release,in May of that year, from the William Osler Hospital Board to close obstetrics and paediatrics at the Georgetown Campus (hospital) on July 5th. There was no public consultation, just a closed door board decision which had enormous impacts on our community. For all intense and purposes, I was a rookie Mayor, having been on the job for 6 months and now we have a crisis.

The first thing was to put the new Health Minister George Smitherman on notice that our community was angry over the decision. I wrote a very strong letter outlining our communities deep concern with the impacts of closing our obstetrics. Many were worried that this was going to be the beginning of the end for the hospital. Georgetown hospital was opened in 1961 on Father's Day. In the mid 90's the Ontario government of the day had amalgamated Georgetown Hospital with two larger centers of Brampton and Etobicoke General to form William Osler. I always find that when there is an amalgamation the little guy always gets hurt. This was not going to happen in Halton Hills.

We organized two buses to go to Etobicoke Hospital to make plead our case to the board. I did a 10 minute deputation only to fall on deaf ears. Halton Hills had a strong council and many local doctors, community leaders plotted strategies to get to the Minister. I had daily meetings with a group of councillors I affectionately called the " War Department. " Myles Lawlor made 1000's of post cards that citizens could sign with messaging to the Minister. We collected 1000's of them and sent them directly to the Minister so every day he would receive about 100. The Independent Free Press jumped on board with clip out coupons of their own to save our hospital. There were 7039 that were collected and signed by angry Halton Hills citizens in a 10day period. I issued weekly press releases to keep this issue top of mind. Believe me it soon became the number one issue in our community.

We decided to have put a notice on a Friday edition of the paper to hold a rally for our hospital on the following Wednesday. Myself and the councillors weren't sure what the turn out was going to be but we encouraged everyone to make their own signs. The rally was to be held at Georgetown District High School. When we arrived, were we surprised as over 700 citizens crammed the gym. Man was it hot. Chants of shame, shame and Save our Hospital were loud and clear. Citizens of all ages were there and many colorful homemade placards were waving in the crowd. We had Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Debbie Zeni speak, as well as myself and Jane Fogal. Councillor Fogal received the loudest cheer when she suggested that CAO of William Osler Bob Bell dust off his resume and look for a new job. He was a pompous little ass.
That hot humid night many citizens signed up to go to a protest at Queen's Park the following Tuesday June 15th. Many were our senior citizens. On Monday afternoon I received a faxed letter from the board saying that William Osler were not going to close obstetrics on July 5th. I cancelled the protest at Queen's Park. The following day I met many people in the Moldmasters auditorium as they were prepared to go to Queen's Park. We won! We won! So we thought.

Myself, Jane Fogal and Councillor Jon Hurst drove to Toronto to let those know who we couldn't get a hold of in time, that the protest had been called off. Upon returning to the my office the phone had been ringing from nurses saying they have now been told they cannot book summer holidays as they didn't know when obstetrics was going to close. Well I got on the phone immediately and phoned Osler CAO Bob Bell to ask what the heck is going on. He said, "all I said I wasn't going to close obstetrics on July 5th but it will close sometime before the end of summer." Needless to say choice words were exchanged. The best volley came from Councillor Jon Hurst as he laid into Bell over his handling of the nurses. We hung up. They winked and we blinked.

The next day I made one of my first major decisions and decided we are going to Queen's Park on June 24th the last day of the legislature. I called Buzz Hargrove to get the CAW out. I called Sid Ryan who brought out two busloads of retired nurses from Oshawa.

Our first rally which was cancelled had 5 busloads of protesters. Now the citizens were really riled. People don't like to be fooled. Once word got out that the Osler board tricked us we had even more sign up to travel to Queen's Park. We now had enough citizens to fill 8 buses in total plus many drove down themselves. Halton Hills you now have a protest happening. There is no course called "Queen's park protest 101." I had no idea what was going to happen.

June 24th buses showed up with so many people, seniors, expectant moms, children. You name it they were there. John Vierra of JV Clothing supplied everyone with a t-shirt with " Save Our Hospital " printed on them so we all looked unified.
We had about 10 speakers on the front lawn of Queen's Park. Global TV, CHCH news as well as the French CBC.

After the hour or so demonstration we went inside and held a press conference with Dr. Zeni. This was my first taste of the Toronto media. They had been generous.
Later Dr. Zeni and myself ran into Smitherman in the cafeteria. We exchanged words and wasn't sure if this was going to be good.

We grabbed our seats in the gallery for question period as the house just sat. Out of the blue, then deputy Preimier Greg Sorbara walked out of his seat in front of everyone came up the stairs and sat down beside me. Asked how I was doing and shared some small talk. Of course the hospital came up. I wasn't sure what that gesture meant but was hoping it was a good sign.

As the debate started, Minister Smitherman announced that he was not going to sign off any documents to close Obstetrics or paediatrics at the Georgetown Hospital. The six weeks of uncertainty of our hospital was over. My wife Josey, Councillor Fogal and myself all cheered loudly. When we cheered so did all political parties cheer. We cheered so loudly that the speaker of the house, Alvin Curling, asked us not to cheer anymore as he had lost control of the house with the excitement. It was a David vs. Goliath struggle and David won. Bob Bell soon resigned his position of CAO of William Osler after the Minister over ruled the hospital board.

Later George Smitherman transferred Georgetown Hospital to Halton Health Care. We are now with Milton and Oakville. Two communities that we have in common through our ties with Halton Region. There is another long story how that had transpired. The first move was to change the name of Georgetown Campus to it's original name Georgetown Hospital. Gawd, I hated that name Campus. Today, six years later, Georgetown Hospital is flourishing. There are now two obstetricians.

This is part of Halton Hills history that I am proud to have played a role in. This was largely due to the many people of Halton Hills who rallied in those six weeks to save our hospital.