MPP Arnott calls upon Minister of Health to approve Groves Memorial Community Hospital redevelopment proposal

Minister’s approval needed to move to next stage of planning

Waterloo-Wellington MPP Ted Arnott made the following statement in the Ontario Legislature on December 14th in support of Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus:

Mr. Speaker: On Monday of this week, I was scheduled to ask the Minister of Health a question concerning the redevelopment of the Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus. Unfortunately, I was unable to put my question because the government members deliberately dragged out their staged questions and responses, effectively killing the clock. I had intended to ask the Minister why it's taking the government close to two years to give Groves Memorial hospital the approval they need to move forward on our ambitious and visionary plans for hospital redevelopment to improve health care for our residents.

There's been much talk in this House in recent days about wait times. The Ministry of Health now has a wait times Web site which showed that the waiting lists are growing longer and the situation is getting worse, not better, for most procedures. This is a fact that the Minister has yet to categorically deny.

Now we see that there should be a Web site tracking the wait times of hospital redevelopment approvals. Surely the Minister would agree that our community should not have to wait almost two years, or more, just to proceed to the next stage of planning for our new, redeveloped hospital.

I've written the Minister numerous times, I've raised this in the House, I've spoken to the Minister privately, and I've asked him about this in estimates committee. Our community has raised some $15 million in donations and pledges, an extraordinary amount of money for a small community and an extraordinary expression of support for the dedicated, compassionate health care that the staff of Groves provides.

My constituents have waited long enough for this Minister to respond to our health care needs, which is ultimately what the Groves Memorial redevelopment plan is all about. I call upon the Minister to grant this necessary approval before Christmas.