Board seeks 'positive response'to bed bid BILL WALLACE Board request had support of council A Whitby representative on the Durham District Health Council says he is unable to explain why council support for the Whitby hospital request for more acute care beds was ignored by the Minister of Health. "They (Whitby General Hospital board members) had the support of the district health council," says Gerry Emm, a Whitby councillor whQ has served one year as council member. "He (Health Minister Murray Elston) has ignored the district council." Emm says Elston attended a win- ter meeting of the district health council in Oshawa. SEEPAGE2 Whitby hospital board, stunned and upset at the Province's hospital bed allocation for Durham that -didn't include acute care beds for Whitby General, has requested a meeting with Health Minister Murray Elston to make another bid. "To be omitted is untenable and unacceptable to the hospital board," said board chairman Bill Wallace following a Monday mor- ning emergency board session. He said the board was "distressed, dismayed" to have not received the 43 acute care, or short-term care, beds it had requested. Whitby will receive 36 chronic care beds, the number requested. Hospitals in Oshawa and Ajax - Pickering will receive both chronie care and acute care beds. Wallace said denial of the extra acute beds (the Whitby hospital now has 65 active care beds) may mean "we will not be able to operate as a general hospital." He said the board doesn't want the hospital to become a chronic care facility only, particularly with the population growth now in Whit- by. "I was certainly very disappoin- ted," said hospital executive direc- tor Jim Miller in an earlier inter- view. "We- had every hope we would be awarded the 43 acute and 36 chronic care beds." He said projections indicate Whitby will require 130 to 140 acute care beds by the year 2000. He said talks were held between the Whit- by, Oshawa and Ajax-Pickering hospitals and the Durham Region District Health Council to deter- mine distribution of beds. The 43 acute care beds became an "agreed number," which the coun- cil supported, said Miller. "But we got zero," he said. Miller said after the minister's announcement last week in Ajax he asked Elston why Whitby had been denied its request. Lston replied that he himself had made the decision, Miller recalled. Elston further stated that he had partly based his decision on population statistics within the ministry which apparently were different from those put forth by the hospital. "So that was that," said Miller. "I said, "You'll hear from us again." Mr. Elston said he rather expected that. "The people of Whitby have a right to be treated in their own community and not be forced to leave their town for treatment," said Miller.. He said it was "hard to guess"if the ministry's plan is to make Whitby a chronic care facility. Oshawa and Ajax-Pickering in the future, and we keep getting chronic, the hospital won't be what the community expects it to be. We will indeed become a longterm care facility." Whitby General now has SEEPAGE2 Strike possible A Durham secondary school teachers' strike is a possibility should mediation talks fail this week. The local chapter (district 17) of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation submitted papers signifying possible strike action with the Ontario Education Relations Board. The earliest date teachers could strike is Sept. 8, after the required five days which follow the last meeting between the two sides. Mediation was to resume Sept. 3. Teachers say they still want to negotiate an agreement. The last meeting between the two sides was in.June. Teachers have been without a contract since last year and are seeking a new two- year contract. Bev Tindall, of the Durham district of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, says the 'board prefers mediation rather than the face-to-face negotiation preferred by the teachers association. Doug Belch is mediator. New buses arrive TOWN TRAFFIC and transit coordinator Bill Grylls points out features of Whitby's six new 47-seat Orion buses to Mayor Bob Attersley and councillor Tom Ed- wards last week. The Town recently accepted a tender'of $1.59 million from Charterways to operate the transit system for three years. Free Press photo 4444111 4i4,j44$4444 444444$