A local municipal councillor says he's not giving up on filling the gaps in Chatham-Kent's healthcare system.
At Monday night's meeting, council voted 13-5 to reject David VanDamme's motion recommending that a special strategic healthcare fund be established in the 2019 budget. The fund would have equalled 0.25% of residential taxes or approximately $300,000.
VanDamme says he considers motions like these as to be "opportunities to bring real change to the municipality."
"Certainly the outcome is always a gamble. It takes guts to sit at that table and it takes commitment," says VanDamme. "I brought something forward that I thought was very palatable to a majority of Chatham-Kent residents and certainly would improve healthcare and would be even transforming for the province of Ontario."
VanDamme says he constantly hears from local hospitals and the family health team how important physician recruitment and clinical capital purchases are.
"There are inherent gaps from the province. The province doesn't look after this 100%, so it takes a lot of will and a lot of drive and a lot of energy to make these things happen," he explains.
Now that the healthcare strategy has been turned down, VanDamme hopes this will become an election issue in Chatham-Kent moving forward.
"I know exactly where Mayor Hope stands on this. He appreciates the groundwork that's been done... but for all our other municipal candidates and mayoral candidates, they should get tuned into this," says VanDamme.
The councillor says he is still working with Mayor Randy Hope to come up with solutions and assistance for physician recruitment and clinical capital expenditures for Chatham-Kent's rural and urban hospitals.
"I hope the day comes where we do [come to a resolve] and we can use this as leverage when we meet with ministers and our provincial government to say 'Hey we're doing our part. We're doing everything we can possibly do for our residents to provide better healthcare and what can you do now?'" says Vandamme.
He says Smiths Falls, a town in Eastern Ontario, is another area that is toying with the idea of implementing a strategic healthcare fund. Chatham-Kent could have set a precedent in the province if the motion passed Monday night.
"We're very unique in Chatham-Kent because we're 2,500 square kilometres of 23 communities," says Vandamme. "We have inherent challenges that not many other municipalities in the province have. We have to do things different -- we have more of an ageing population and at the same time we know that we want to attract residents to Chatham-Kent."
VanDamme says he won't be giving up and is "very happy to continue with the file to make this happen."
