This Hospital Bed Availability chart compares the proposed inpatient bed capacity between the two hospital sites and each community’s relative demand for hospital services.
The comparison considers bed count with other indicators including current use, ambulance arrivals, and typical acute care bed-to-population planning ratios.
A copy of this chart for download is available below.
Analysis
The chart and related analysis demonstrates that the Made-in-Muskoka proposed allocation of inpatient beds does not align with demand for services at South Muskoka Memorial Hospital (SSMH).
- Made-in-Muskoka will have SSMH receiving a disproportionately smaller share of inpatient beds across the region despite serving a larger catchment population, receiving more ambulance arrivals, and higher impatient volumes today.
- Comparator indicators show that SSMH bed ratios will be less than half of the provincial average – and similar to bed ratios in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Rwanda.
Key Finding
As set out above, the Save South Muskoka Hospital Committee remains very concerned that the proposed Made-in-Muskoka bed distribution does not appropriately reflect current utilization patterns and future healthcare needs across South Muskoka.
Do you realize that the more you fight this, the less likely the entire project will actually happen? The ministry of health only has so much money…. They will not want to spend it on a project that doesn’t have community support
The Save South Muskoka Hospital Committee absolutely wants this project to happen. But supporting a new hospital doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak up about what it needs to provide for a growing community.
If we don’t raise concerns now, planning decisions about things like the number of hospital beds may be difficult to change later. If the hospital is built with too few beds or without capacity for important services like obstetrics, the South Muskoka community will be dealing with those limitations for decades.
To be clear, we’re not advocating against new hospitals: We’re fighting for the two acute care hospitals that the community was promised. Hospitals that focus on ensuring equitable access for patients across Muskoka, that have the right services to support local healthcare providers, and that have the capacity to care for our community as it grows.
Speaking up isn’t about stopping the project. It’s about making sure we get it right.