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Sandra Bradley has decided her life is worth $1 million.
It’s the cold calculation the Minden, Ont. woman is being forced to make in a complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in a bid to halt the closure of her local emergency department (ED).
Through her complaint, Bradley, a stroke survivor who suffers from chronic pain, is seeking a moratorium on the closure of the busy Minden emergency department in the heart of Haliburton cottage country, set to shut down on June 1. She is also seeking $1 million — an amount she believes to be the value of her life if she were to die due to an “unreasonable delay in being transported” to the next closest ED in Haliburton.
“I think this move that they’re making is very ill thought out and I know they can reverse it,” said Bradley, 61, who in addition to the chronic pain and the effects of the stroke from several years ago, is also a thyroid-cancer survivor.
To get to the Minden ED now, she says, takes about 15 minutes — a time that will more than double if she has to go to Haliburton.
“I don’t think there’s any need for it.”
Last month the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Board (HHHS) announced that Minden emergency services will be “brought together” with those at the Haliburton Hospital on June 1. The “difficult” decision to consolidate emergency care was based on the “significant and persistent physician and nursing staff shortages experienced by HHHS, as a result of the global healthcare staffing crisis,” said board president and CEO Carolyn Plummer in a statement to the Star.
The staff shortages meant HHHS had to take “extraordinary measures” to keep both the Minden and Haliburton EDs operating and required “significant and professional sacrifices from staff,” according to the board’s website.
“By bringing together HHHS’ emergency services at one site, there will be more staff available to help create a more stable and effective staffing situation overall. No jobs will be lost as a result of this decision,” the website reads.
The move comes amidst the backdrop of broader public health-care cuts by the provincial government, from slashing fees doctors charge for virtual care to ending medical funding for the uninsured.
Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, claims the move is “not a closure,” but rather a “consolidation” that “will ensure patients are receiving emergency care in the location that is best equipped to provide urgent acute care as the Minden site was used primarily to stabilize patients before being dispatched to larger centers and did not have any inpatient beds.” She noted that the Minden site will continue to offer some services.
Bradley and thousands of other locals aren’t buying it. A week ago, NDP health critic France Gélinas submitted a petition with more than 3,300 resident signatures seeking a one-year moratorium on the Minden closure.
“In the summer months, this is cottage country, thousands of people go there. More and more people are moving to that area, and it comes down to equity of access,” Gelinas told the Star.
Minden Hills Mayor Bob Carter says there was a lack of consultation with community stakeholders on the ED closure, which is set to take place just before the area swells with thousands of cottagers and tourists. He says that to change a system that has been working for 30 years and “do it all in six weeks seems like such folly.”
Bradley’s human rights complaint claims she is being discriminated against based on her disability and age.
“As a person with a disability and a complex number of medical issues that does not drive a motor vehicle, I am now located 42 kilometres from an emergency department. I am presently located 18 kilometres from the Minden emergency department,” her complaint reads. “I feel this is an unreasonable restriction on my access to emergency health-care services.”
Tanya Walker, a lawyer with the firm Walker Law in Toronto, said Bradley’s case could be a challenge because the Minden ED will be closed to everyone, not just to people of a certain race or disability or those experiencing discrimination under any other grounds listed in the Ontario Human Rights Code.
She added that it may be difficult for Bradley to receive a $1-million award as the HRTO has historically limited awards for “injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect” to $20,000.
Sandra’s husband, Richard Bradley, acknowledges you can’t put a value on a life, but he and his wife picked $1 million in compensation to make a point.
“They’ve got to know we’re serious,” he says.
He notes that Minden’s ED was not among those forced to temporarily close due to staffing shortages during the pandemic. A recent Star analysis found that 158 ED closures took place between February 2022 and February 2023, affecting 24 Ontario hospitals serving primarily rural areas.
“Arguably, with more people moving up since the pandemic and working remotely, we actually need more emergency care. So it just makes no sense to us. And we got six weeks’ notice … I couldn’t get a permit to build a deck in six weeks,” says Richard, vowing to follow the complaint “until the bitter end.”
“If we allow it to close on June 1, we know we’ll never get it back.”
He adds that having an ED in Minden is crucial for those experiencing time-sensitive, life-threatening medical events.
“If I’m having a heart attack or a stroke, they can do emergency interventions to keep you alive long enough to get you to a more specialized place,” he says. “We’re in a hell of a mess here.”
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