The reality is, you can announce 'til the cows come home', but if you're not actually doing something... it ain't gonna solve the problem.
Witness the city of Belleville, which has privately raised almost 2 million dollars for a desperately needed MRI machine.
Both QHC chairman Lloyd Churchill and chief of staff Dr. Barry Guppy have written to Health Minister George Smitherman in separate letters, urging approval for the MRI purchase.So... twenty months and 2 million privately raised dollars later, the McGuinty Liberals have yet to get back to the hospital board about this lifesaving piece of equipment.
But to date, no answer has been received, QHC board members heard at their monthly meeting Wednesday in Belleville. QHC first asked for approval to buy the MRI in January 2005.
The $1.8-million cost for the basic MRI, which provides three-dimensional scans and is a technological marvel that radiologists insist be in a hospital’s medical bag, has been raised in the community.
The Chief of Staff, Dr. Barry Guppy has another concern.
Guppy said the hospital needs at least two radiologists to clear a backlog of people waiting for MRI or CT scans. Non-urgent cases have had to go to hospitals like Cobourg and Kingston to have the scans done.As for George Smitherman's famous "announcements", the people of Belleville are just asking if he could simply answer the damn phone.
Technorati Tags: George Smitherman, Dalton McGuinty, Liberal Party
