Keep cancer care
in Huntsville.
Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare plans to move the Huntsville cancer clinic to Bracebridge. For patients in the north half of the district, that is an extra 30 minutes each way, after chemotherapy, in February, on a highway that closes. We are asking that the clinic stay where it is. This is about Equitable Access to Healthcare.
Care stays where people are.Two new hospitals. One quiet decision.
MAHC is building two new hospitals, one on the existing Huntsville land, one at a new Bracebridge location, with provincial support confirmed in April 2022. That investment is welcome. Our communities want both hospitals built.
What was never put to the public is how services get split between them. MAHC held consultations on the buildings, but not on service distribution. It is understood that the cancer clinic is slated to move from the Huntsville-Memorial site to Bracebridge, along with other services that have not been disclosed.
Planning is still moving through the Ministry of Health's capital stages. That is exactly why now is the moment to speak, decisions like this are easy to change on paper and nearly impossible to change once concrete is poured.
Why 30 minutes matters
Patients · Caregivers · WeatherThe hard part is the drive home
Nausea, exhaustion and infusion-day anxiety do not travel well. Treatment is often weekly, or more. Thirty extra minutes at the end of a chemotherapy day is not a detail, for some patients it is the difference between accepting a treatment plan and modifying it.
Someone has to drive
Roughly a quarter of caregivers take time off work, at an average loss of $2,402 a month. An extra hour per appointment is another hour of unpaid leave, another hour of child care, another tank of gas, repeated across a course of treatment.
Highway 11 is the only road
Between Huntsville and Bracebridge there is no practical alternate route. When Highway 11 closes for a collision or whiteout, as it did repeatedly this past winter, an appointment is not late, it is missed, and rescheduling a chemotherapy chair is not simple.
Your story is the strongest argument we have.
If you or someone you love was treated at the Huntsville clinic, tell us what it meant to have it close to home. We publish first name and township only.
“Having access to a nearby clinic is not just a matter of convenience; it is a vital component of my quality of life and healthcare management.”
Kim · Perry Township · Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer“All we want is equitable access to health care. Keep the oncology clinic in Huntsville for all cancer patients in the Huntsville Hospital catchment area.”
Austin · Magnetawan · Multiple MyelomaHow to help this week
Write or call
MAHC leadership, the Premier, the Minister of Health, our MPP and MP. We give you the numbers and a letter you can send as-is.
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