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| June Masters with her almost-healed arm. |
The fight is on to save the hospital in
Pugwash, and now that her arm is on the mend, June Masters of Oxford is coming
out swinging in support.
A few weeks ago, June landed on my doorstep
with a story to tell me, a story about an injury and a small hospital in rural
Nova Scotia.
In January, she burned her right arm badly
while attempting to make French fries at home with just a pot and oil.
“The result was a second-degree burn on my
right arm,” she said, adding that she doesn’t recommend that method to anyone. “I
called friends of mine and they took me to the hospital in Pugwash. The nurses
took me right in and treated me. You never have to wait there.”
The community surrounding the North Cumberland
Memorial Hospital has been waiting since 2010 for the fulfillment of the
promise to renovate and upgrade the hospital. The lack of modernization is
affecting the area’s ability to attract and keep doctors.
“We’ve been using the hospital since 1994 and
between my two daughters and myself, we’ve always had the best care,” June told
me. “The staff is wonderful.”
She planned to attend the town hall
presentation on March 1, which occurred after the deadline for this column. She
is one of many who want to the hospital in Pugwash to remain open.
But it’s not enough for the 50-year-old hospital
to stay open; it must become viable. That’s why the government needs to honour
the promise of a new health care facility.
Otherwise, Pugwash is going to suffer the same
fate as Wentworth and River John.
At church this past Sunday, we talked about
the parable of the unfruitful fig tree. The owner of the tree was upset that it
had yet to produce any fruit so he told his gardener to cut it down. The
gardener replied, “Give it one more year. I’ll dig around it and add
fertilizer.”
This is the perfect analogy for hub school
and hospitals.
The provincial government does very little
to support community initiatives in rural areas yet expects those initiatives
to flourish without extra help. The people who live and do business in rural
areas ask for one more year and some resources in order to make it happen.
Yet what happened to the hub schools
effort? What happened to the Pugwash hospital?
Even as they showed promise, the government cut them off. You’re not fruitful enough.
Even as they showed promise, the government cut them off. You’re not fruitful enough.
Rural people know what to do with a little
soil and some fertilizer; they have faith in hard work and know how to adapt to
new ideas. Government bureaucrats armed with financial spreadsheets and consultants’
reports think the soil and fertilizer and new ideas cost too much.
It’s says a lot about a government when it
drops the Department Economic and Rural Development in favour of the Department
of Business. Only, it makes no business sense to cut down a flourishing rural
area by refusing to invest in its well-used hospital.
And they call country people backwards?
***
Update on the March 1st public meeting in Pugwash, from a reliable source:
There is no new hospital coming any time soon. Instead, there's another 1.5 million dollars to make a plan for a new hospital and present it to the government by April 2017. What happened to the last plan that was presented to the government? Oh, right, the government failed to come up with all the funding. So...another beautiful example of classic government stalling. Honestly, how many governments are going to pass along this project? If they'd taken care of this 20 years ago, when it first became an issue...
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