Chair of OurTMH, Mike Cowan.(Photo/Quinte News)
The citizens advocacy group OurTMH wants members to rally outside of a what’s considered a game-breaker meeting regarding a proposed health hub for Trenton tomorrow (Thursday).
OurTMH and the Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation consider the meeting, which is closed to the public and press, so important they’re offering free bus rides to the meeting’s location.
Both organizations and the Mayor of Quinte West Jim Harrison believe the meeting will result in the health hub being located where the Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre now sits, Murphy Street in downtown Trenton.
OurTMH, the Foundation, and the Mayor want it on donated land next to the Trenton Memorial Hospital.
The meeting is to be held at the Southeast Local Health Integration Network office on Adam Street in Belleville at 4:30.
Bus rides to the meeting will be offered tomorrow (Thursday), leaving from Quinte West city hall at 3 o’clock.
Discussions have long been underway regarding a health hub and the location almost always discussed has been one near Trenton Memorial, either as a stand-alone building or an add-on to the existing structure.
Partners in the health hub discussions have been the South East Community Care Access Centre, Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre, Victorian Order of Nurses, Addictions and Mental Health Services and the Brighton-Quinte West Family Health Team.
Unofficial cost estimates for the hub have been in the 16 million dollar range.
The provincial government has so far pledged 6 million toward the project.
Quinte Health Care had donated land adjacent to the hospital for the hub.
The meeting has been set up as a private one with stakeholders, and the speculation that there has been any final decision on a location for the hub is just that, speculation.
