Wesley puts Liberal membership on the line for Burg ER
Buses will be leaving from Wallaceburg and Walpole Island to carry interested residents to and from the meeting Monday in Chatham focused on the Wallaceburg ER.
By Aaron Hall – Daily Post Editor
The chair of the Save Our Sydenham committee, Jeff Wesley is upset about a development Friday in Petrolia.
“I am fed up, I am angry, I am disgusted,” Wesley said in a letter sent to MPPs Maria Van Bommel and Pat Hoy, MPs Bev Shipley and Dave Van Kesteren, Mayor Randy Hope, Chatham-Kent council, among other local stakeholders.
According to reports, the Erie-St.Clair Local Health Integration Network announced Friday that Petrolia’s ER would be saved, thanks to a new five year deal.
“Good for them,” Wesley said. “I am very happy for them but I am disgusted and angry for (the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Sydenham Campus).”
Wesley said “the gloves are coming off” with the fight to save the local ER.
“Our ER is as or I would argue more important to us,” Wesley said. “We need our two MPPs Maria Van Bommel and Pat Hoy to step up and get this issue resolved. Quit using the LHIN as your shield. We elected you not the LHIN. The Province is responsible for health care. Over ride the LHIN, make the decision and then abolish them.”
Wesley challenged C-K’s mayor and council as well.
“We need our Mayor and Council to step up and take the lead just like the Mayors of Sarnia and Petrolia and the Warden of Lambton County have,” Wesley said “Your methods are not working. We have enough ER doctors to do the same deal as Petrolia.”
Wesley also went as far as saying he would quit the Liberal caucus, a party he has been a part of for more than 30 years, if the Wallaceburg ER is not saved.
“If our ER is not saved, as was Petrolia’s, not only will I quit the Liberal party, not only will I never run for them as a candidate again, but that I will also actively campaign to defeat our two current MPPs,” Wesley said.
The SOS committee has arranged for buses to leave from Wallaceburg and Walpole Island, in order for interested residents to head over to the Council Chambers on Monday, March 2.
Gary Switzer, CEO of the LHIN, and Ken Trembley, CEO of the CKHA, will be making presentations to Chatham-Kent’s community leaders focusing on the issues arising from the recent study done by the Hay Group on local emergency room departments. Read the full Daily Post story here.
Residents of Walpole Island can be picked up at the WI mall between 4:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Citizens of Wallaceburg can be picked up in the Sobey’s parking lot from 4:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
The meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
Check the Daily Post for updates.
Terry Johnson
March 1, 2009 at 8:53 am
I’m not sure that letting a Tory win Lambton-Kent-Middlesex will do very much to save our hospitals. It is more likely to result in no hospitals at all, or ones you have to take your credit card to.
However, Jeff is right to mobilize the local community around this issue. The report commissioned by the LHIN appears have been a dodgy exercise – spending money on an inadequately researched “report” to “justify” what one was going to try to do anyway while trying to escape blame.