He's back!

It's kind of funny that my last blog post had to deal with a presentation from the Good Shepherd in 2012 seeking a bit of loan relief from the city. Not quite ironic but my very next job was in the not for profit sector as Director of Development at Neighbour to Neighbour. In that position which I held for three years you don't write opinions about events in your city. Your job is to reach out to all sectors of this great city of ours seeking to raise funds for a variety of programming that helps those who are less fortunate than others have a better daily living experience, and so Farraway's Hamilton went into limbo.
Forget limbo, we're back.
Now why are we back?
As some of you know (those who care to follow Hamilton politics) I was one of 22 candidates in the recent Ward 7 by-election. In fact while walking along the bay front this morning with the grand doggy Yogi, I met a chap I hadn't conversed with in over 20 years. The first question out of his month wasn't how's the wife and family, his first words were "why in god's name would you want to get elected to join that nest of vipers?". Hmmm.
I wanted to serve.
I wanted to have an impact.
I wanted to lend my expertise to the significant issues of the day, from transit and LRT, to affordable housing, ward boundary review and the development of Piers 7 and 8 just to name a few.
Even thought it didn't happen (and I have no regrets) I did immerse myself in issues and questions I had never concerned myself with before like Inclusionary Housing and health care provision in this city.
I was reminded about health care provision while driving on Main West past the HHS West end clinic this very day. It reminded me of broken promises from Hamilton Health Sciences 8 years ago for a South Mountain health clinic. It reminded me of the far sighted (not) decision to shut down Chedoke some 20 years ago. Now that HHS and it's highly transparent board (not) have decided to pull out of McMaster and St. Peter's over the next decade (and trust me it will happen sooner than later) I am reminded of the lack of health provision for the fastest growing areas of our city. With all due respect to Waterdown and lower Stoney Creek,  the most serious growth continues to be found in Wards 6,7,8, 9 and 11. For some of those folks it's a pretty easy hop, skip and a jump to get to Centennial and King for some basic health care. But for the vast majority there is only the emergency at Juravinski servicing a mountain population that is conservatively estimated to be in those five wards, at well over 200,000 people (subtract small chunks of wards 9 and 11 below the escarpment while adding a small chunk of ward 12 which would be better serviced by a south mountain clinic, and remember these are 2011 numbers it's safe to say the real number is closer to 210,000 people).

Think about some of the decisions made by the HHS over the last 20 years.
They closed the emergency at Chedoke because it was under utilized (they said). They took out operating rooms and slowly but surely began to shut it down acre by acre, building by building and now service by service, indeed recently having the audacity to ask the city to help subsidize the final removal of staff to the under utilized Stelco tower downtown. Did anyone at HHS consult city planners about the expected explosion of growth that took place on Upper Hornung, in the Meadowlands all the way to Redeemer and on the South side of Rymal in gated communities like Garth Trails? Apparently not.
Eight years ago while announcing the closure of adult emergency at McMaster (which we were told would take care of the under utilized patrons of Chedoke) a South Mountain Health clinic was promised. Six months after said promise the West End Clinic was born. The South Mountain which hasn't grown a tad in those 8 years (insert sarcasm here)  remains a health provision desert. And how did that promise get broken? The west end, Ancaster and Dundas jumped up and down screaming bloody murder. HHS caved.
Now HHS is pulling out of Mac and building an entirely new building/division near Hamilton General to take care of children's and women's health issues while closing St. Peter's and telling Hamilton residents that if they need day surgery they'll be able to travel to Grimsby to get it.
Really?
The opaque and out of touch HHS board is going to get away with this boondoggle because not one Councillor in this city has raised any argument with not only the announcement but the HHS decision making process. I don't want to sound like a whining mountain resident but when the population of the south mountain wards is virtually tied with the population of the old lower city don't you think we deserve better than 12 over crowded emergency beds jammed into a building as far away from the current growth hot spots as they possibly could be? Don't you think based on the taxes paid on the mountain that consideration should be given to a south mountain medical facility to take care of the daily breaks and hurts that don't need to clog an emergency? I don't think this is whining. I think the facts speak for themselves. The mountain and outlying communities like Mount Hope and Binbrook are under serviced and frankly ambulance response times are only going to grow if something isn't done. The lower city currently has a children's hospital, the General, St. Joe's and two clinics serving the west and east ends plus a new facility to built near the General. The mountain?