Letter to the Editor:

Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre / Bill George Extended Care 

Good morning Premier Ford,

I am writing you, as a reminder, of your commitment to the people of Sioux Lookout.

While campaigning in Sioux Lookout, on your last campaign, you said “If I am elected the “Premier of Ontario,” I will personally come and put the first shovel in the ground for the expansion of beds for the Bill George Extended Care”. As yet we haven’t seen the whites of your eyes to complete your promise/ commitment to the people of this Northern Community.

We are in a situation where elderly residents are occupying hospital beds, which are much needed for the sick residents of our community.

It is sad to visit the sick and see patients in small cubby hole spaces used as bedrooms. How can proper treatment occur in these small spaces?

A resident who recently broke her hip was transported to Thunder Bay for her surgery, couldn’t be taken back to the Meno Ya Win Hospital after surgery, as no beds were available, so she was taken home two days later.

Our hospital is being occupied by long term care residents, instead of the Bill George Extended Care as we don’t have sufficient beds in our Extended Care Facility.

These residents have no family to care for them or their partner is unable to handle a dementia patient or a more severe condition.

Some of our local residents who invested monetarily while our Extended Care was being built are being sent to other communities without relatives close by. 

What is your solution to this situation?

I noticed that Greg Rickford was able to acquire Covid funding for hospitals in Dryden, Kenora and Fort Frances but once again Sioux Lookout was ignored. 

Sioux Lookout Extended Care as well as the Meno Ya Win Health Centre services a catchment area for some 30,000 Northern Residents.  I don’t feel as if 20 beds are sufficient to handle this population. If you are a man of your word, you should seriously look at the dire situation that we are experiencing at the Bill George Extended Care as well as the Meno Ya Win Health Centre.

I am sure that our past MPP Leo Bernier would definitely not let this situation continue as he worked for every community of the North, regardless of political convictions.

I will be eagerly waiting for a response so I can share the news with fellow residents of our community.

Awaiting a favorable reply,

Sincerely, Mrs. Geraldine Morgan