A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
The office of Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin didn’t waste much time wading in to the Niagara Health System mess after the province’s appointment of a supervisor – St. Joseph’s Hospital CEO Kevin Smith – to try to untangle this train wreck.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin
This includes the right to probe the NHS board’s infamous ‘Hospital Improvement Plan’ and the real reasons behind the tragic decision to build the only new hospital complex for which this region is likely to receive funding for decades to come in west St. Catharines, rather than in a more a more central location for all Niagara residents. It also includes any special perks NHS administrators may have received from contractors and mismanagement of funds for buyout packages for former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and others.
Here is the August 31 release from the Ombudsman’s office below. If you believe a full and independent investigation of the NHS should be conducted, contact the office at the toll free number or website listed at the bottom of the release and state, in as much detail as possible, your reasons why. Give Marin the information he needs to finally get to the bottom of the hospital mess we have here in Niagara.
Ombudsman Now Has the Power to Investigate Niagara Health System
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Aug. 31, 2011) – Ontario Ombudsman André Marin now has the jurisdiction to investigate complaints about Niagara Health System, following the provincial government’s appointment of a supervisor for the institution.
Dr. Kevin Smith has been appointed as the hospital’s supervisor, reporting directly to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Niagara Health System is a multi-site hospital that includes Greater Niagara General in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines General and Ontario Street in St. Catharines, Douglas Memorial in Fort Erie, and sites in Welland, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Port Colborne.
While normally the Ombudsman does not have jurisdiction over hospitals in Ontario, that changes when the government takes direct control, since the Ombudsman does have jurisdiction over the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
Ontario is the only province in Canada whose Ombudsman does not have a mandate to oversee hospitals or long-term care homes. Despite this, the Ombudsman’s office receives many serious complaints about these facilities every year that cannot be investigated. A total of 291 complaints about hospitals were received in fiscal 2010-2011.
Complaints about Niagara Health System or any provincial government service or agency may be made to the Ombudsman’s Office at 1-800-263-1830, or via the online complaint form available at http://www.ombudsman.on.ca.
(We invite you to share your views below, but mostly share them with the Ontario ombudsman.)
Niagara At Large 
More then 30 dead. It took over 3 0 people’s death …my God how low have we gone….Vote anything but liberal in the next election. The Liberals Voted against Bill183 that would have had the Ombudsman investigate hospitals and possible stoped this mass death rate…
LikeLike
Andre Marin the Ontario Ombudsman nearly got the ax recently by the Liberals, Andre is nobody’s fool, he gets at the unvarnished truth and calls a spade a spade, so far I have been one of his admirers, Like Jack Nicholson said in a great movie role ” they can’t stand the truth” let Andre at ’em.
LikeLike
My mother died in the St. Catharines General Hospital May 25, 2010 because of complete disregard by the staff and admitted faulty doctoring. She arrived on May 22 having had a fall of more than 3 feet onto her right arm and her forehead. She was stitched up and sent back to her residence without so much as an X-ray, let alone a CT-scan. When she was brought back by ambulance on May 24, she was left without any attention from a doctor for 6 and a half hours. She died of massive internal bleeding in her head. Jean Chretien was saved from such a fate because of good medical attention. My mother had the misfortune of being treated by the NHS.
LikeLike
THIS NEEDS TO BE SHARED
“In general, health care consumers have a right to: receive safe and proper care; have health problems and treatments explained clearly; participate in health care decisions; ask questions and express concerns.”
I finally experienced, for myself, in my opinion, the dark side of the St. Catharines General Hospital. To this point, I have had nothing but praise for its staff, who have wonderfully ministered to our family in the past while been forced to work under worsening conditions, already noted by others.
But for the few, the many would be spared this embarrassing testament. I needed to take a family member in for emergency surgery recently. The patient acknowledges the nursing and doctoring staff, positively, up to a point…but for one unabashed uncaring nurse. Following surgery, a dressing had to be changed. The pain was beyond severe and left a traumatic wailing patient begging for mercy. The nurse in question demeaned the patient and, in my opinion, went beyond reasonable action, and also physically abused the patient by her actions, in-so-far as she openly berated him and dismissed his pleas…making a normal process into a torturous, traumatic, agonizing attack on the injury, and the “self.”
No provision had been made by anyone, for the pain which was known to be a consequence of this particular surgery. For that I fault the doctor for not having left instructions/a prescription for the expected pain, and the nursing team present, for not halting the process until such was provided for.
Both the patient, and I, demanded a stop to the process and the provision of suitable anesthetic to the region being ministered to.
Our family has been left deeply stunned and shaken by these actions, and are seriously considering legal action, and, demands an immediate written apology from those involved. Someone must answer for denying the rights, in law, of the patient, and of being involved in the gross errors in judgment…it was shocking, indignant, indecent and uncaring. Shame on those involved.
LikeLike