It’s been two weeks since Haliburton Highlands Health Services announced it would be closing the Minden emergency room and consolidating ER and acute care services at its Haliburton site.

There has been an outpouring of shock, anger and fear ever since. There has also been a lot of information dispersed.

Might I now suggest we all stop for a minute and take a collective deep breath.

I applaud politicians and grassroots groups for being so passionate in their fight to delay – or reverse the decision. We’d all love for that to somehow happen.

If it cannot, we all want to feel assured that the Haliburton site will be ready for the thousands that will pass through its doors starting June 1. Towards that end, we all anxiously await the plan that HHHS has in place.

And while the various Facebook groups that have sprung up give a voice to the shock, anger and fear, there are many misplaced comments, untruths, and words that are simply fanning the flames.

We urge everyone in the community to think before they post. Is what you are saying helping the situation or hindering it? Do suggestions such as boycotting the Foundation or the Kinmount Fair due to MPP Laurie Scott’s affiliation with Kinmount, really help? Or does soliciting support from the likes of actors Michael J. Fox, or Ryan Reynolds really contribute to the cause?

By all means, we should see if there is any way to have a sober second look at the situation. In the meantime, we also have to consider how we might turn our collective angst into better planning for our health care future. After all, some might say our history did not serve us well in the initial building of two hospitals just 25 kilometres apart. What can we do now to ensure we get the best result for our County going forward?

It’s been suggested to me that mobile ERs are a thing. A quick online search reveals that a mobile ER is a modern, mobile medical unit that provides preliminary treatment for a broad spectrum of illnesses and injuries, potentially life-threatening and requiring immediate medical care. Imagine if something like that existed here and patients could already be en route to a bigger hospital when needed.

In Dorset, the late Herb Hickling launched the health hub, bringing accessible primary and preventable health care closer to citizens of that County. He facilitated community efforts to join with the District of Muskoka and begin discussions with the province, seeking and achieving their support. He built a strong alliance with Lake of Bays and Algonquin Highlands. Could something such as this be done in Minden? Herb worked with community groups, and got monetary and volunteer time donations.

These are just two examples. Maybe it’s time to stop the finger-pointing and start doing what has been, perhaps, lacking to date – look at our health care services and plan for what it will look like in five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and beyond.

Clearly what we have, not only locally, but across Ontario and much of Canada, is not working. Maybe Haliburton County can set an example of how we, and other communities, might do better in future.

HHHS’ decision to close the Minden ER has stirred up a hornet’s nest, especially in Minden Hills, which will be most impacted by the move to consolidate ERs and acute care in Haliburton.

We feel for the residents of Minden and surrounding areas. Having an ER that is close to where you live, work, and play brings a sense of comfort to all of us.

It will be particularly hard for those who live in the south and western parts of the township. The folks in Moore Falls and west of Carnarvon, for example, are going to be worried about the extra travelling time to Haliburton, or if their ambulance is even going to take them to Haliburton now, as opposed to Lindsay or Bracebridge or elsewhere.

Social media has been flooded with very personal stories about how the Minden ER has saved lives over the years.

The loss cannot be overstated.

However, it should not come as a complete shock to people. HHHS has been threatening possible temporary ER closures for 18 months. Remember those check-stop-go warnings?

And while some in the community say there has been zero consultation, HHHS has been pretty transparent for some time that staffing shortages are having a very real impact on the viability of keeping two ERs open.

That said, there is a big difference from telling the community there may be temporary ER closures and announcing a permanent closure. A lot of people only found out last week – including politicians, and employees of HHHS.

While hindsight is always 20:20, HHHS should have anticipated the backlash over its decision. Perhaps a public meeting or town hall in advance of such a major closure would have been prudent. At least then, the public could have had its say. It hasn’t and that is why Facebook groups are popping up, as well as GoFundMe campaigns and petitions. Perhaps all of this reaction still would have happened – even with a public meeting or town hall – but we’ll never know.

We would ask hospital management and the board, however, to still hold a public meeting or town hall. The public wants questions answered. The answers may not mollify them, but at least they will feel they have been involved somehow. There will be an iota of transparency.

Some of us also wish we could turn the clock back. What would the situation be like today if the County politicians of the day had agreed to build just one hospital more geographically centered in the Highlands? Perhaps we would not be going through this today. Our parochialism is sometimes a gift, but often an impediment. It’s no different than Minden Hills going it alone on a new arena and recreation centre, instead of working with the entire County to build a larger facility that maybe could have housed an indoor swimming pool. We’ll never know because Minden was looking after Minden.

At the end of the day, all we can do is deal with what we are facing today.

Will having one hospital improve health care in the Highlands? Time will tell. Will we be able to attract more doctors and nurses and get more diagnostic imaging, such as a CT scanner? Time will tell.

One thing that isn’t productive is continuing to be parochial and suggesting downright stupid reactions such as withdrawing funding from the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation in protest of the Minden emerge closure. That mentality just hurts us all.

We do, however, look forward to HHHS coming up with some innovative solutions for the dearth left by the closure of the Minden emerge, whether it is a walk-in clinic, or something such as the Dorset Health Hub’s nurse practitioner-led model.

A positive announcement in that regard would go a long way to making Mindenites feel a little bit better about this decision.

It’s not often we toot our own horn. Generally, we just go about doing our business, whether it’s writing stories or selling ads.

We work hard and try to be a good community newspaper. We never really know how we stack up against the competition until things such as the Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA) awards come around.

On Friday, we learned we had won four categories, were runners up for two others, and also garnered a couple of third places.

Being named the best paper in our circulation size – again – is always a good indicator that we remain on the right track. Looking at the judges’ breakdown for the general excellence awards, we very easily beat 15 other papers, some from much larger towns.

“It’s as if you meet the whole community in the pages of this paper,” the judges said.

Since day one, when owners Bram Lebo and Simon Payn brought this independent paper to the Highlands, that’s been our mission. We print our mission statement in every edition, on the top of page 8, to remind us why we are here. It is, “to tell the story of Haliburton County each week. To be a source of information and inspiration through stories and ideas. To report on issues, people and events important to the community. To reflect and promote pride in the culture, people and landscape of the Highlands. To encourage Highlanders to believe in themselves, in our community, and in their power to make our place in the world better every day.”

It’s that mission statement that steered us to amp up our municipal election coverage in 2022 with both podcasts and print stories. It won us a first place for online special initiative.

Sam Gillett, who left us in 2022 to try some new things, took a couple of firsts. One was for arts and entertainment, a genre he excelled at. The other was for a first-person account of taking part in 8 Hours of Hurtin’ in the Forest.

I was pleased to be named runner-up for reporter of the year. The judges noted a strong knowledge of the different topics and styles of story submitted and were happy to see my photos complete the package.

Mike Baker was awarded a second for an excellent piece he wrote on a woman who had nearly died from Lyme Disease but is now on the road to recovery. The judges found his story both well-researched and written. They also felt it was relevant to the community.

Gillett was recognized for a heart-wrenching tale about a dog and its puppy being shot. And our head of production, Tania Moher, won a third for an ad the judges found to have a clever use of white space.

It’s nice to know that we stand out from the crowd. We don’t do it for the awards, mind you. We do it for our community, for our readers and our advertisers. It might sound trite, but we really couldn’t do it without you. So, these awards are for all of us.

For readers who are wondering why The Highlander hasn’t reported on a pair of serious incidents that took place at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School this month, there is a simple explanation.

A complete and utter lack of communication on the part of Trillium Lakelands District School Board.

I was a little embarrassed when, on April 4, I received a couple of phone calls from local residents looking for information about an apparent hold and secure that took place at the high school earlier that day. I had nothing.

I reached out to the board’s communications department that evening asking for any details that I could pass on to the community. Almost 24 hours later, I received a response confirming an incident had occurred, but that no further information would be released.

I reached out again to ask why. By this point, all sorts of rumours were swirling around town. I’d heard a student had been caught with a gun in their locker, a student was seen running through the halls waving around a replica weapon, someone had been caught with a large knife in their backpack, and that a student had been attacked.

TLDSB insist parents were notified of the incident, but The Highlander has heard from several who still claim to have no knowledge of what happened that day.

After being pressed again for details this week, the board said they were remaining tight-lipped at the behest of the responding OPP officers.
“We have been instructed not to include detail as it often encourages copy-cat behaviour,” was the direct quote.

This raised alarm bells and got me thinking something really serious had happened. And in such an event, I didn’t think it was right the community was being left in the dark. So, I reached out to the OPP on Monday to ask if this was true. Within hours, a press release had been posted to the force’s public portal addressing the situation. It didn’t anwer my questions, but it was something.

In its release, the OPP claims it did not locate any weapons at the school. There were no injuries reported. The investigation is still ongoing.
That it took two weeks for this information to see the light of day is disappointing. I feel a lot of misinformation, and stress, could have been prevented if all of this came out, say, the day of, or at the latest, the day after the event.

There was another incident this week that I learned about through second-hand sources. A parent posted a notice to Facebook on Monday, stating the science wing had to be evacuated after a small quantity of a toxic substance, described as “possibly arsenic”, was spilled during a class.

A student was sent to hospital, while the Peterborough Fire Department’s hazardous materials management unit were brought in to investigate.

Again, I reached out to TLDSB for details. Again, the silence was deafening. I didn’t receive a response until a full day later.

We don’t expect to be the first call, certainly not in the event of an emergency, but a heads up so that we can, at the very least, calm worried parents or family members, or nip dangerous rumours in the bud, would be appreciated. In fact, I’d say the board has a responsibility to do so.

Communication is key in these kinds of situations, and I feel our public school board, and the OPP, owes it to the community to make sure it does a better job of keeping people in the loop moving forward.