www.insideHALTON.com • OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, May 3, 2012 • 6
The Oakville Beaver
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SUbmitted photo
DEER CROSSING: Resident Sam Hage took this photo on his camera phone Friday, April 27. The family of
deer were running through the neighbourhood on Wilmot Crescent in Oakville.
Letter to the Editor
Guest Column
New Oakville hospital on track
John Oliver, Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) president and CEO
H
alton Healthcare Services (HHS) is pleased to have this opportunity to keep our community informed about the initiatives
that keep us “Caring Today, Growing for Tomorrow.”
Having celebrated the outstanding accomplishments of our doctors on Physician Appreciation Week (April 30-May 4), we look forward
to recognizing our exceptional nursing staff on National Nursing
Week, May 7-13. Physicians and nurses are the crux of our patient-foJohn Oliver
cused care team. We value them all year and take great pride honouring them in their professional recognition celebrations.
As spring unfolds and temperatures rise, we will see activity on the new Oakville hospital
construction site, at the corner of Third Line and Dundas Street, ramp up.
During May, six cranes will be erected, followed by the pouring of the concrete foundation later
in the season. Soon after, the external structure will literally rise from the ground before our eyes.
As we watch the building materialize into the state-of-the-art healthcare facility we have envisioned, we must remember the physical construction of the building is only half the story.
The other half involves preparing our staff, physicians and volunteers for life in the new
facility, so we are ready to continue providing safe, effective patient care and services to our
community when it opens. The new Oakville hospital with its modern patient and family-focused design, mobile communications systems and advanced technologies will change and
enhance the way we work, communicate and provide care.
To relocate and function effectively in this new environment requires in-depth discussions
and detailed planning beyond the physical relocation of patients and equipment. Although the
move is scheduled for late fall 2015, we have already begun this “Operational Readiness” planning and look forward to sharing our progress with you in the months and years to come, in
this column and online at the hospital’s new website, www.newoakvillehospital.com.
The safe and high-quality care we provide today at HHS was recently acknowledged. In
April, HHS was recognized as one of the Best Ranked GTA Hospitals in the Canadian Institute
for Health’s Canadian Hospital Reporting Project, an inaugural online report, which compares Canadian acute hospitals at the local, regional, provincial and national levels from
2007/08 to 2010/11. This was preceded by the 2011 Platinum Quality Healthcare Workplace
Award HHS received from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and the Ministry of Health
and Long-Term Care. The prestigious platinum award — the highest level attainable —
complemented the innovation, teamwork and commitment at HHS to ensure our hospitals
provide a great supportive workplace, which, in turn enables delivery of quality patient care.
HHS has high standards to uphold and in this first column I could only touch on a few of
many HHS initiatives. I invite you to learn more by visiting www.haltonhealthcare.com. This
summer, in response to your feedback, our website will offer patients, their families and the
community more information, better resources and improved navigation to meet your needs.
Lastly, we look forward to sharing more information about HHS with you in this forum and
others, including upcoming community engagement sessions where you’ll have the
opportunity to preview and comment on various aspects of the new Oakville hospital interior
design. Information about these future interactive events will be communicated here and at
www.newoakvillehospital.com.
Dog Guide Vinyl showed reader how to live life
Editor’s Note: Vinyl was a black Labrador the Thompson family
fostered on behalf of the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog
Guides.
For those of you that knew Vinyl, her slobbering face was the
epitome of pure and unabashed joy.
Today (April 27), the world has lost this spark and I know in the
hearts of my family is where this will be felt the most. Vinyl had been
fighting a losing battle with myelofibrosis brought about by her latest
pregnancy (so we believe) and last night her battle came to a close at
just three years old.
While I am upset that I was only able to share in Vinyl’s life for a
short time and would have given anything to see her bright face just
once more (as I am away at university), I am at least lucky that I will
only hold the memory of Vinyl in her youth and health with an
orange ball squeezed firmly between her teeth — unlike my parents
who had to watch her health deteriorate before them and for this I
can extend no greater condolences or love to help them through.
So while I am sad, I can at least be happy knowing that she is now,
again, at peace with the universe.
The universe is a funny thing. While it can be seen as cruel, it is
not, for it gives us life, innocence and joy. The universe is unbiased,
as in the end it will reclaim us all, but it is in ‘death’ that we realize
how truly magnificent and special the entire existence is.
While we are alive, while any creature on this planet is alive, it
should be enough to know that we are the universe experiencing
itself. Too often, as human beings, do we perceive ourselves and our
planet as somehow removed from the universe at large, but we are
not. We ARE the universe and Vinyl displayed these qualities brilliantly.
Dogs do not live and exist the way they do because they are aware
of that fact that they will one day perish, nor do they live and exist in
this way for fear of eternal damnation or being rewarded in heaven.
They have no concept of these things and still Vinyl (and all dogs)
showed us unshaken happiness and richness.
So on that note, if there is anything that I have learned from my
friend Vinyl, it is that time is an illusion, and lunchtime doubly so.
Dogs do not eat because it’s 5 p.m. dinner time; they do not run
because it’s time to exercise; they do not fetch expecting that upon
returning the ball, it will be over; and, they certainly do not choose
when to show their love.
Time is a unit of measurement
that we, as humans, have designed
to organize ourselves because we
are continuously convinced there
is somewhere we need to be or
something more important to be
doing or that every year, we are
going to grow a bit older and that
for some reason, that means something significant.
Dogs are in a perpetual state of
being. They are always their naked selves. Something that we were
all born with, but conditioned to forget.
Dogs know how to be happy and show their love unconditionally.
Maybe we should all take a step back, a deep breath, and just remember “I am alive” and try to enjoy and truly appreciate that notion, that
privilege, more often.
Bruce Thompson, Oakville