Annapolis Community Health Board Postcard In the Health Authorities Act one of the first things a community health board is mandated to do is to “foster community development that encourages the public to actively participate in health planning and service delivery”. We took this very seriously when the cuts to our system were announced in early February of this year. The thing we have done that I feel should be shared and is going on as I write is our rejection of the announcement to downsize our health care as we know it. When the announcement was made that is may be necessary to close a large portion of our facilities, people became alarmed. As in most areas, there is friction between various towns and historically they have been in competition with each other. As the CHB that represents the largest geographic area in our district it was incumbent on us to bring the parties together. We initiated a strategy meeting with representatives of most of the major public stakeholders. Invited were all the auxiliaries associated with the Annapolis Health Centre and Soldiers Memorial Hospital, the mayors and wardens, the EMS, business people, staff representatives, Kingston/Greenwood CHB, the DHA and our CHB. The meeting was very productive. We broke into committees, each with its own task, having the ACHB and some community people as the coordinating body. A public meeting was scheduled for the following week. Each committee did a masterful job in arranging the meeting, advertising, engaging speakers and arranging for space. All the communities worked together and the result was amazing. A crowd of people descended on Middleton the likes of which this part of the valley have never seen before. It took 25 minutes to get down the main street of this small town and the RCMP were rerouting traffic for kilometers around. The following week another rally was held in Cornwallis. The results were the same. By this time we had joined forces with the Western Kings CHB. The tireless efforts of the joint committee resulted in a protest in Berwick February 21, 2002. We had an overflow crowd. At this time it was announced that we had won some concessions from the government. Not near enough and we will continue our fight. All we are fighting for is our fair share of health dollars. We should not be penalized for being efficient. Petitions with over 20,000 signatures and over 2500 letters have been faxed to MLAs. This week we plan to let Dr. Hamm see us outside the Legion in Bridgetown where he is scheduled to attend a Conservative meeting. A rally in the Kentville/ Wolfville area is on the planning board as is a bus trip to the legislature.
One area we were to address in this postcard is funding. To this point all work has been done by volunteers, our flyers, petitions and letters were donated by a local printer. Advertising space on the radio was donated by a local businesswoman. Paper was donated by local businesses, facilities donated by local schools and organizations. This is truly a joint effort between communities in the Annapolis Valley. It is harder to involve some sectors than others? Definitely! As with most initiatives, there are always some who see things as “not their problem”, “it doesn’t effect us the same way”, “we will work on our own”. We must work to bring them on side. The impact is so much greater when we all work together. In this case especially, what effects one area will have a spillover effect into others. If we are not united all will suffer the consequences. Lack of adequate facilities in one area will result in fewer doctors in those areas, people moving up the valley for their health care and taxing other facilities that are now working to capacity. It will all accumulate in Valley Regional in Kentville. Then people who depend on Valley as their main source of care, whether they access the facilities directly or indirectly through various clinics, will find that their waits in doctors offices are longer, their access to beds more difficult, and their waits in outpatients and emergency services stressful. There have been tactics used to try to make us fight among ourselves – divide and conquer – but we are not buying in. We plan to continue our protest. We have united 3 health boards, the doctors in our area working under the acronym HACKA (Health Action Coalition of Kings and Annapolis), and most importantly the citizens of our community. People are feeling empowered and know that if they work united much can be accomplished. Bridges are being built between communities, organizations, and citizens. There is a definite feeling that no one community is fighting alone and we are united in our efforts. We are communicating and building trust and an understanding of each other and how our communities work. There is much more to do if we are to win this battle and keep intact the facilities we have. There are more bridges to build, more partnerships to form, more awareness campaigns to launch, but we are confident that with a coordinated effort we can succeed.