Battle for bed DURHAM CENTRE MPP Allan Furlong speaks Thur- sday morning at a meeting to ask residents and business leaders for their support in obtaining 43 acute care beds for Whitby General Hospital. Free press photo Boarding house addition rejected A Euclid St. homeowner's application for an addition to provide boarding house accommodation for ex-psychiatric patients was rejected by Whitby's administrative committee Monday night. "Boarding houses are not the answer," said both councillor Joe Druim and Ross Batten, while newly elected committee chairman Gerry Emm agreed, to overturn a planning staff recommendation to approve the plan by Lorraine Willis. Drumm said boarding houses do not provide the "home atmosphere" needed by ex-patients. "Putting them into a boarding house is not doing anything to further them getting into the mainstream...it retards their growth," said Drumm. He said that while boarding houses are probably the only accommodation now available, they "add to the problem that is already there." He urged that the Town now has to stop such use of boarding houses. "We're not having a good experience with rooming houses," added Batten. Emm noted that the psychiatric hospital also doesn't approve of boarding houses. Several neighborhood residents attended the meeting. A statement of objection, signed by residents, was also presented to committee before discussion of the matter. Many residents had attended the previous public SEE PAGE5 I~t H 4: «:4 4.:. 4." By MIKE JOHNSTON About 250 people last week heard how but not why Whitby General Hospital was not allocated 43 acute care beds following a Ministry of Health announcement last September. "The most annoying thing at that place (Queen's Park) is that decisions are made and you are never given reasons why," said Allan Furlong, a Liberal recently elected MPP for Durham Centre. Furlong attended the second of two meetings on Thursday, Nov. 12 and told an audience of 120 people he does not know why Whitby General did not receive the beds. (A meeting was also held on Tuesday, Nov. 10). "I have been trying to find out why for the past two months but that 'place is humongous," said Furlong. "There is no reason why the minister should not address this issue," he said, noting that no reason was given by the former Minister of Health, Murray Elston as to why Whitby did not get the acute care beds. In September, hospital board had received support for the 43 acute bed request from the Racing yacht tested in harbor area By MIKE JOHNSTON Whitby harbor will be home from now until the middle of December, to one of three boats vying to represent Canada in the Canada Cup yachting races. The competition between Canada and the United States is held every three years on the Great Lakes. The Steadfast III, a 41-ft. boat built in Bowmanville by Andy Wiggers, will be put through tests on Lake Ontario by a crew of 10. The boat is being moored at Whitby Harbor. "We are in Whitby because it is the only place where the water is deep enough to test it," says Scott Collinson, a member of the crew. Collinson also organized the building of the boat which began last April in Bowmanville. The Steadfast III was put in the water at Whitby harbor last Wednesday, Nov. 11. It weighs 10,000 lbs. the lightest boat of its class in Canada or the United States, and was designed by Bruce Farr of New Zealand who designed that country's entry in the America's Cup last year. Collinson says mooring the boat in Whitby also allows members of the crew to go to work or school. Collinson himself attempted to represent Canada in 1984. Another crew member, Hugh Owen, has come from British Columbia. Canada won the cup in 1981 and 1984. This year the Royal SEE PAGE 17 ....:~4::~~»'~'. « s-underway Durham Region~ District Health department. He said the hospital Council, an advisory body to the has 460 beds serving a population ministry. of 123,000 for a-ratio of .54 visits Oshawa General received 60 per resident to the hospital. acute (short term) care beds, During the same period of while Ajax-Pickering Hospital time at Whitby, there were 25,000 received 45 such beds. visits to the emergency Chairman of the hospital department. With 65 beds and a board, Bill Wallace, told both population of 46,000, that ratio audiences Whitby's population cornes to .55 visits per resident, "explosion" demands the beds said Wallace. Citing statistics from March "Those visits are more related 1986 to March, 1987 Wallace said to personal choice than physician the Oshawa hospital received referral. Therefore we need more 67,000 visits to its emergency beds. Residents are demanding, said Wallace. Petition That point was bluntly put across to the audience by John Coulter, a resident of Whitby.« goes aroundHe told the story of how he had a heart attack this past The Lioness Club of Whitby is summer and was taken to coordinating a "petition blitz" Oshawa General for treatment. throughout the town in support "Two months later I had to go of Whitby General Hospital to the Whitby hospital where I board efforts to get more acute was told there were no acute care care beds for the facility. beds available and I would have The club hopes to gather as to be moved from the bed I was in many signatures as possible ifanaccidentpatientwa5brought before the Nov. 30 deadline. in. Residents can call Lioness A doctor told the crowd Club members at 668-4944 or there are times when he is 668-2268 or the Community Care working at emergency," sitting in office at 668-6651. d the back doing nothing," because thereits no p he to puteiergncy there is no place to put patients. Ed Buffett, a member of the hospital board, told the crowd that although Oshawa and Ajax were allocated beds, there may be a time when those beds will all be used up. "This is an emotional issue when it is your child, spouse or parent located outside the community," he said. "Transportation in this region does not facilitate going to Oshawa unless a family has two or three cars," sai d another resident. "Oshawa and Ajax got Whitby SEE PAGE 5 'y «y 4 's.- f JOHN SHERRATT, a member of the Steadfast I1 crew, took a Free Press camera to the top of the 60-ft. mast to get this overhead view of the boat that will be vying to represent Canada in the 1988 Canada Cup. Free Press photo 1