By Doug Draper
It may be cold out there. But the last week of this January has seen the battle with Ontario’s government over what it is allowing its appointed hacks to do to Niagara’s hospital system approach the boiling point.
Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin slams province on hospital services
During the week, Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin fired off a letter to Ontario’s health minister, Deborah Matthews, challenging recent comments she made in The Globe & Mail that the closing of the emergency room in the hospital in his municipality was undertaken to provide better health care for residents and not to save money.
In the meantime, Sue Salzer, a south Niagara resident and leader of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens dedicated to fighting for better hospital services, was a guest on CBC’s Radio Noon program on 99.1 FM. On the program, she discussed questions raised by many in the community about the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Ansovino, who died in a Boxing Day traffic accident in the municipality, and whether she might still be alive today if the emergency rooms at either the Fort Erie or Port Colborne hospitals – closed last year by the provincially sponsored Niagara Health System – were still open.
You can hear the entire CBC interview with Sue Salzer (if you have speakers on your compute)r by clicking on the following link http://www.cbc.ca:80/ontariotoday/story_archive.html and scrolling down Radio Noon Ontario’s home page in the ‘Audio Archives’ section until you reach the title “ER Closing,” then click on that and listen.
Niagara At Large is also posting the Fort Erie mayor’s letter to Ontario’s health minister in its entirety, which you can read by clicking on ‘keep reading’ now. Continue reading
Niagara At Large 