Last year, our government appointed a panel, chaired by Dr. Barry McLellan, to develop a plan to improve the way health care is provided in Scarborough and Durham Region. Since that time, my ministry has been working closely with the Central East Local Health Integration Network, Rouge Valley Health System, including the Ajax and Pickering hospital, the Scarborough Hospital and Lakeridge Health, to move forward with a plan that will deliver hospital services that best meet the needs of people in those communities.
Over the past several months, the boards, hospital staff and clinical leadership and special adviser Mark Rochon have all worked very closely to develop the hospital structures required to improve the delivery of health services to the Scarborough and Durham communities. I am tremendously thankful to our hospital leaders for their hard work on behalf of their communities, and reaching out to their communities for their advice and opinions.
Thanks to their work, we’ve heard concerns about the impacts of these changes, concerns about preserving the services that exist and about preserving the voice of local communities in the operation of their hospital.
I believe in this plan for Scarborough and Durham because it gives us the tools to expand and enhance services for each region. As I told the legislature earlier this week, Bowmanville hospital is not closing on my watch. Period. And far from reducing the services provided, my office has received a proposal for new services including a new emergency department at the hospital, and I look forward to continuing to work with Bowmanville and Lakeridge on enhancing those services.
I also understand there are concerns about ensuring that West Durham residents are appropriately represented on the Lakeridge Health board of directors. And I’d like to commend Lakeridge Health for responding to those concerns. With the changes that Lakeridge Health has made, more than 60 percent of the members of Lakeridge Health board either live or work in West Durham, ensuring a substantial voice for the communities. And I look forward to working with the community and with Lakeridge Health to examine how an already strong hospital in Ajax can be further enhanced to better serve the community.
I want to applaud the passion and dedication that the communities have demonstrated for their hospitals. And it is that same passion, along with the flexibility demonstrated by all of the hospitals and health systems involved, that makes me confident that together, we can build a health-care system in Durham that will be stronger for generations to come.