f wrote:
thanks Colin, my question would be this, by expanding the hospital, are we really able to address the problems you mentioned with an expansion, emergency rooms are always full of people with colds, ad a $5 user fee as we suggested some time ago, people bend a finger and they tie up precious resources. Delivery is argueable at best as many couples, edit- females go to credit valley or where their doctor is. albeit emergencies arise and i dont think any woman will be expedited because the hospital was expanded. is there any data to support what your saying? has any woman had complications and was re routed to another hospital to give birth? its easy to say lets build an expansion that really, many folk i talk to dont deem as required. i dont buy the " no tax " answer, any politician that would suggest that worries me. with all due respect you guys have priorities wrong. milton tranist is another one, milton is a commuter town, expanding milton transit is a bigger waste of money than the hopital. i dont recall the last time i seen a bus with more than 3 people. id be more convinced if there was data to support ALL of what is being said before my tax dollars go anywhere,
The data and statistics to support the expansion you are looking for f is in the presentation given by Halton Health Care that was posted in another thread on this subject that includes supporting the expansion of the OB department, as well as other areas.
As a woman who has delivered at both McMaster (child 1) and Milton (child 2) with 2 high risk pregnancies let me explain how this works. I was treated by McMaster high risk OB's with my first after being referred there by my Milton OB, whom I was referred to by my Oakville family Dr (who gave me the choice of OB's in Oakville, Mississauga or Milton). I chose close to home until my pregnancy went high risk and I needed specialized care only available at McMaster and Mount Siani. I hated delivering at McMaster with my first child because being 45 minutes away from home was a pain for my husband after baby was born and the hospital being a Regional Center for high risk babies was stressful and it showed in the staff. With my second pregnancy I went to OB's at Mount Siani until I reached 30 weeks, everything was going well and I could be "downgraded" to deliver closer to home (believe me the idea of being an hour from home at yet another regional center did not thrill me, nor did I feel it was necessary to tie up a bed that could go to someone else who really needed it for delivery!). Again I was given the choice of Mississauga, Oakville or Milton. Knowing from previous deliveries that they were pretty straightforward and uncomplicated (and fast!) I chose to be as close to home as possible with a local OB I knew and trusted. If I was prone to complications I would have chosen Oakville or Credit Valley as they are Level 2 OB units (AKA they have incubators and the ability to treat a higher degree of complications to newborns). I quizzed my local OB about what might happen if I went into premature labour and she said it would be OK to go to the nearest hospital (AKA Milton) and as required the baby would be transported to a higher level hospital "it happens all the time" in her words, but it shouldn't have to. They have equipment to stabilize and transport a newborn but not to do long term treatment (AKA no NICU with incubators and associated equipment).
The staff were great and I have no regrets delivering at Milton. But, I can tell you it gets crowded to the gills! I was glad to have fast and uncomplicated deliveries that would get me out of there in a day and a half and only needed a birthing room for a few hours. Milton's OB unit has 8 beds in total. 3 birthing suits, one room that can be used for either birthing or post-partem as I recall and 5 post-partem rooms - and they share the operating suites (2?) with general surgery to perform . Compare that with Oakville Trafalgar's Level 2 facility which in it's birthing suite has 2 triage, 6 l&d, 2 dedicated OB operating rooms, and 4 post-anesthetic recover beds, while in the maternal unit where you go after delivery with the baby has 19 beds and 6 pediatric beds (aka incubators). I don't know the fine details of Joseph Brandt but they have a level 2 nursery (incubators). Oakville, Credit Valley, Joseph Brandt and community hospitals and not designed for the growth Milton is seeing and heaven knows Obstetrics is BIG here. We have a great bunch of OB's in Milton but their capacity to deliver is limited here because of the facility. That's my experience. I understand other core departments have similar bursting at the seams capacity problems.
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