Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson learned last week that north-central Dufferin is not alone in its dismay at the closing of a hospital.

He says that at a combined meeting of Good Roads Association and Rural Ontario Municipal Association, he found general dissatisfaction with Local Health Integration Networks, and that there were no assurances of any kind from either the LHIN representatives or the Ministry of Health that anything is about to change.

“The LHIN representative was getting beat up (verbally and emotionally).” He said a 73-year-old mayor from a northern Ontario municipality actually broke into tears at the podium when talking of his local hospital closing.

The northern mayor told the public gathering that he had been one of the volunteers who built the community hospital. He, himself, had done the roofing, Mayor Crewson quoted him as saying before he broke down.

Mayor Crewson said he noted for the meetings that Central West LHIN, of which Dufferin is a part, has the lowest per capita funding in the province. He wasn’t able to determine what formula is applied to the funding allotments – but wondered if it has something to do with the value the province places on rural people relative to urban residents.

“Within one square block of this hotel there are four hospitals. Why is it I’m worth so much less than a person in Toronto,” he said he had asked rhetorically.

But his major question of the ministry on funding, he said, was related to current studies of bridging the gap on health services in Centre Dufferin.

Noting that the LHIN is to study ways to best meet Shelburne-area health service needs, he said, “I would like the ministry’s assurance it will be provided with funds. If solution is recommended, would there be funding?”

In an interview Wednesday, he described the responses given as “bafflegab.”