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Wanted: Shores Business News ceeabr;afi ig E committee members Page 8-1 Canadas Pagei5rir~ a B Hobbs takes atm at board, cmîte on Group formed to 'Save Our General Hospi*tal' By Mark Reesor Rather than cut acute care beds Whitby General Hospital (WGziI) shouid eut administrative and supervisory staff if it wants te save money. That's the recommendation from 'Save Our Generai Hospi- tai' a citizens group formed te figfit a proposai te turn tihe hospital inte a rehabilitation care faciiity. A founder of the. group -- and the hosjpitai -- Dr. Ken Hobbs, says WGH bas 24 administration and supervisory personnel work- in steady 8 a.m. te 4 p.m. Monday te F'riday. That works out te one for each 2.5 patients, h.e says. «There is not another hospitai, I don't think, anywhere in the world that wouid have that... yt the leaders of our board say this is ail right." Hobbs, a former WGH board chair and chief cf staff, is aise upset with the money spent on the. hospitai's 16-page annuai hnI was chairman cf the board, we used te mimeograph our annuai report." He was aise criticai cf the use cf a consultant to develop a new image for the. h e cl;hairman cf the. board... said I don't understand that. Well, I do understand it and most people in this community understand money. This to me is a sacriiege, absolute sacrilege." Hobbs aiso, stood by his conten- tion that ne other community of 60,000 "ini this continent" doese not have active treatment beds in their community, which was disputed by past board chair Ed Buffett who mentione Vaughan Township as an exampie. 'TMe chairman of the board took me te task on that and said that Vaughan has. Vaughan is a township and is closely relied with ai I the municipalitie of Metropolitan Toronto.W e are in a single entity.» He aiso disputes Buffett's con- tention that Whitby residents haven't given as much te their hospritai as other communities. <'t was s0 far out because he went ahead and raised $5 million for an expansion of the hospitai that was neyer approved by the government. That, te me, was fraud, absolute fraud.» Hobbs stresses, though, that the main fight is not against the board of directors. «Rather we Ère in strong disagreement with the steering committee of the acute care study.» The group says it's appalled that regional councillor Marcel Bruneile, who represents Whitby on the district health council, «did not object te the composition of the steering cemmittee. "Imagine a cemmitte. cern- posed of three representatives froem the northern section cf the region -- three from Aj ax, one from Bowmanville, seven from Oshawa -- with no representative who lives in the Town of Whitby.» The group lu ailso upset the new board chair Jim Souch lik. Buffett, is not a Whitby resiâent. "Thie is what united the col- onies in 1776 -- taxation without representation." Hobbs wonders why other boa- pitai board members and Whitby counciliors, who are scheduled te meet the steering conimittee Thursday evening, have been sulent about the recommendation (councillors said Monda y night they wouid jein the fIght te retain acute care services -- see story on pagel 4). "No one, other than the past chairmnan cf the board, bas said anything -- I can't understand a group of 12 individuals who have muzzled theniseives.» "What really puzzles me is the counci's osition -- how can the mayer cf this community not know and have input inte some- SEE PAGE 29 m * - - A Buffet won't resign, responds to criticism Page 2 Council joins fight to keep acute care Page 4 Letter: Surgery chief gives Tacts about services Page14 < ~. ~ ~ Ffrè usmage in cirnp.~ N S . NSS~NSS~NN'.%.%.V..... $40,OOO damage at Mount Lawn Vandals knôcked over statues and trees and set a fir. Sunday morning at Meunt Lawn Cerne- tery, causing about $40,000 damage. Police say the culprits entered the cemeteiy, on Dundas Street East just west cf the Whitby/ Oshawa border,, sometime bet- ween midnight and 3:30 a.m. Sunday and knocked over four large marbie statues. 7:y aise broke four trees, causing an estimated $30,000 dam age. Vandals alsc set a fîre in the crematorium chapel, causing about $10,000 in extensive smoke damage. Police say they threw a rock through a window on the. north- east side cf the chapei and used ai six-foot inetai pole te, set the drapes ablaze by holding burning materiai up te thern. Police are investigating. Vandals knocked over or broke more than 200 headstone. at Oshawa's Union Cemetery just down the road from Mount awn at the corner cf King Street and Trhornton Road, sninetime over- night Wednesday last week. Som ornf the eider hèadstoes, many cf which were made with irreplaoeable white marble, date back te the 18009. Ma I rAhl»ýý àw '