Russ Powers and his community council will organize their own local open house for Hamilton Health Sciences representatives to receive input on proposed changes, including closure of McMaster's adult emergency room.

Mr. Powers said HHS did a "lousy job of promoting" an open house at Dundas Town Hall March 5, resulting in a low turnout.

"I don't think it's been done justice," Mr. Powers said of the public consultation on what he sees as a major change to local health care.

"We need to have another open house."

He plans to advertise the event, likely to be held in mid-April at the Dundas Lions Memorial Community Centre, using funds from his own city councillor budget.

"We'll convene the public meeting, with optimum notice," Mr. Powers said.

The community council will also hand out a survey to residents who attend the open house to gauge local opinion on the proposed changes to Hamilton hospitals.

And the group will craft its own response to HHS administration during the April community council meeting. It's expected that issue will take up most of the evening.

Retired Dr. Bob James, who was on vacation when HHS staff made a presentation to the Dundas community council on Feb. 20, said McMaster was originally set up as a general hospital.

"It became a specialized hospital gradually, and that has been done without public consultation," Dr. James said.

Representatives of HHS say specialization is the future of modern medicine, with each of their hospitals focusing on specific elements or types of care, and all related specialists in one location together.

They say although this means longer trips to the correct emergency room when other hospitals may be closer, treatment will be faster and better once the right destination is reached.

The proposal includes McMaster becoming a child-focused hospital with an emergency room dedicated to people under the age of 18. Several community council members question a focus on children when the area's growing population is seniors, and those are the residents who will need a community hospital like McMaster.

"It's frightening," Dr. James said of the HHS proposal.

Fiorigio Minelli said the hospital's responsibility to the community never came through in the HHS presentation to community council.

"It appears the driving force is research money and operating efficiencies," Mr. Minelli said.

Maria Antonakos said a longer trip to an adult emergency room will impact her property values in downtown Dundas.

She believes HHS will receive more money for research into child health care, rather than seniors medicine and that is the reason for the proposal.

"Twenty five per cent of the population are children, but a small fraction of that population are sick children," Ms. Antonakos said.

Hamilton Health Sciences apparently has to submit its proposal to the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for approval sometime this spring.

But the role played by the LHIN, and the process it uses, is not clear.

Juanita Gledhill, board chair for the LHIN which serves Hamilton, was not available for comment before deadline, and LHIN staff did not offer any information about the approval process.