Attempt to save Creemore Medical Centre board fails
Clearview council narrowly passed a bylaw Monday night dissolving the Creemore Medical Centre Service Board.
There was some hope that the board would be preserved so it could continue its doctor recruitment efforts in order to attract new tenants to the medical centre but there weren’t enough votes.
Councillor Thom Paterson attempted to amend the motion to remove the Creemore Medical Centre from the list of boards and committees being dissolved but his motion was defeated in a tie vote.
The hope was that the board could remain in tact and change its mandate. Township staff has already taken on certain duties relating to the management of the medical centre.
The medical centre board’s current chair Marg Purkis and Bill Mann, a past chair, spoke during the public participation period of the June 26 meeting.
Purkis said she doesn’t know how they can proceed with doctor recruitment without the authority of the board.
“It appears we have lost our ability to interface with clients,” she said. “I fear that if I do not have a board behind me it does not carry the credibility.”
Mann said the community raised more than $500,000 to expand the medical centre with the expectation the community would choose which medical practitioners would serve the community.
“We could be more effective if we are inside the tent, not outside the tent,” said Mann. “It could be a real thorn in the hide of Creemore. A wise move would be to reestablish the board.”
Councillor Deborah Bronée was one of the council members in favour of proceeding with the bylaw.
“We have done a lot of work readdressing how [volunteers] serve,” she said. “They wonʼt have the onus of what is expected of them as a board.”
Bronée said, “We have all these committees that don’t have staff support. The volunteers can be the heart and soul and the staff can be the nuts and bolts.”
The bylaw passed Monday finalizes a May 29 decision to dissolve the Creemore Medical Centre Service Board, Sunnidale Winterama Service Board, New Lowell Parks and Recreation Service Board, Cybergnomes Team 2013 Service Board and Clearview Recreation and Culture Advisory Committee, as of Jan 1.
The decision took the Creemore Medical Centre Service Board members by surprise. Purkis was under the impression an agreement was in place that the medical centre board would continue in an official capacity to recruit doctors, while township staff would manage the finances and the maintenance of the building.
