Shelburne has been chosen by the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) as one of 12 centres for public consultations on hospital services in rural and northern Ontario.

The OHC panel will be at Grace Tipling Hall tomorrow, March 5, from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend with their questions and comments, Mayor Ed Crewson said in an interview Monday.

Panel members in Shelburne tomorrow are: Dr. Claudette Chase, Sioux Lookout; retired Liberal MP Roger Gallaway (Sarnia Lambton); NDP Health Critic France Gelinas, MPP (Nickel Belt); Dr. Tim Macdonald, Petrolia; OHC director Natalie Mehra; and retired RNs Barb Proctor of Picton and Kay Tod of Burk’s Falls.

Suggested comments for the panel include, among other things: concerns about local hospital services; what role the hospital plays in the local health system, the community and the lives of your family; what gaps in services exist; and what ideas and recommendations you might have for the future of the local hospital.

The hospital focus of this panel differs from the focus of the one appointed by Premier Dalton McGuinty in July 2009 to do an “environmental scan” of existing rural and northern services and present a report to the minister of health prior to holding public consultations.

The OHC has been critical of the 14-member McGuinty panel since it does not include hospital services within its terms of reference, as well as the absence of public consultation until after the final report has been delivered.

“Glaringly missing from the text of the panel’s terms of reference is any single mention of the word ‘hospital,’ even though the panel was announced in response to massive protest over small and rural hospital cuts. In fact, the terms of reference are full of relatively meaningless buzzwords,” OHC said in a November 2009 release.

The OHC is at 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305, Toronto. You can phone them at 1-416-441-2502, fax at 1-416-441-4073, email: ohc@sympatico.ca or visit online at www. ontariohealthcoalition.ca

The McGuinty panel has also invited comments from the public on the following questions, but not on hospitals specifically: What is the single greatest challenge or barrier to accessing health care services in rural, remote and northern areas today? What is the single most important change that you feel will have the most impact in improving access to health care in rural, remote and northern areas?

What do you feel should be the founding vision for improving access to health care in rural, remote and northern areas of the province? What are the guiding principles that are needed to support the province and LHINs local health integration networks in their decision making? Do you have any other comments that you feel are important for the panel to consider at this early stage of planning?

However, the government’s panel cannot recommend spending on new programs, and is not empowered to dissect decisions of the LHINs, according to its website.