An Update from Niagara Health System Supervisor Kevin Smith
February 11, 2013
There has been a great deal of activity since my last posting. I continue to receive a steady flow of input from the communities and interested consumers and providers. The tours of the new St. Catharines Site in particular have been a focus of feedback, and the consolidation of maternal child services remains a hot topic.
Niagara Health System Supervisor Kevin Smith announces new NHS board
Here are updates on work underway:
A. NHS Board Process
You will recall from my report that we have struck a Community-Based Nominating Committee to aid in the selection of the new Board for Niagara Health System. This committee is made up of dedicated community leaders with governance experience including:
– Mr. Gary Burroughs, Chair of Niagara Regional Council
– Mr. Art Frank, President of Casino Niagara
– Ms. Cathy Hopkins, local business owner and frequent volunteer
– Mr. John Marsh, retired CEO and philanthropist, Port Colborne
– Ms. Tamara Paton, management consultant and frequent volunteer
– Mr. Doug Rapelje, advocate for seniors and healthcare quality
– Dr. Karl Stobbe, leader of the McMaster Medical School’s Niagara campus
– Mr. John Suk, retired CEO, management consultant, and governance expert
By the end of December, the committee received nearly 60 applicants for positions on the new Board. At this time, interviews are underway, and I hope to announce the new Board in the near future. I am grateful to the committee for their work.
B. Urgent Care Centres
You will also recall that the “southern” mayors unanimously recommended either of two sites for a consolidated new hospital and requested two urgent care centres rather than one, which my report supported. A great deal of work has been done to examine most appropriate sites based on the Lyons Creek and QEW option selected for a new hospital, and we continue to work with the Region to determine the best locations for access to urgent care for the public and for our partners at Niagara EMS.
I expect this work can be completed in the near future, and I will keep the community informed as this work progresses.
C. Culture of Caring
Lastly a reminder to all about the expectations of the new culture at Niagara Health System. I am conscious that we are asking a lot of our staff at this time, from dealing with a challenging budgetary situation, to preparing for the changes related to the opening of the new St. Catharines Site and continuing our mission at all existing sites, to adhering to the highest standards for infection control. We cannot falter on any of those priorities, but above them all we have to give great attention to creating the strongest possible culture of caring at NHS. Kind, compassionate, evidence informed care doesn’t cost more but actually less.
Much of this work is underway, from staff, manager and physician training, to an enhanced complaints process. I am also grateful to our volunteers and foundations for their role in building this culture. Perhaps the most important ingredient is that we hold each other accountable by living our values of compassion, professionalism, and respect. I encourage everyone on the NHS team to be bold in upholding these values, even if it means having to speak up when colleagues or superiors are not meeting the mark. We can no longer tolerate behaviours which are inconsistent with why we exist and what we promise to those in need of our care. We must all be leaders as we take bold steps forward.
Sincerely, Dr. Kevin Smith
NHS Supervisor hssupervisor@gmail.com
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Niagara At Large 
The “Same old Same old” from this overpaid flunky, why the hell does he not just pack his bags and return to Hamilton where he belongs.
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“We must all be leaders as we take bold steps forward”. Sure Kevin! Is that why the people picked for committees are always the same pompous bags of hot air, usually with little or no hospital/medical experience, usually CEO’s and business people whose prime area of expertise (although they often screw that up as well) is finance (thus treating the care of individuals as a business enterprise) and people who have never so much as emptied a bedpan or had barf on their shoes? Great, who better to decide what’s best for those who do the dirty work and know the real needs of the community re health care! Why not ask the doctors and nurses and the housekeepers and the xray and lab techs and clerks all the other REAL care givers? They can cut costs for you. THEY know where the waste is! Unfortunately for you, you would likey be the first to go!
Everything these days is treated as a corporate enterprise and as a result the humanity has gone right down the toilet. Strange as it may seem, the old community hospitals, before the days of overpaid CEO’s and the upside down pyramid of bean counters, worked very well, seldom went far, if at all overbudget, was much more personal and actually met the needs of those requiring compassionate care. Now medicine has taken on the Walmart mentality of cheap, fast and impersonal….although the cheap part only applies to the product and not to those at the top of the food chain eg Smith, Sevenfigures, Kitts, etc. Anyone here know what Smith’s salary has been for his services????? Doug, I would love if you could publish his income. I know of a single woman, actually several, who have worked years for the NHS, but, in spite of being valued and knowledgable employees, cannot get full time because then they would have to actually get benefits and enough money to pay their rent. Sounds a bit Walmartian to me!
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Excuse me!!!
What in the name of all that is holy is going on here?
From what I read above, the hospital board will be appointed. That is wrong wrong wrong!
We, the taxpayers of Ontario and Canada, pay the freight for these hospitals. We should have a direct say in ELECTING the hospital board. That’s right — we should get to vote for the hospital board – not have it loaded down with political party hacks and other “special” people.
Here is something that we should perhaps be pushing the new premier about. Have ALL hospital boards in Ontario elected by the local community they serve.
But I will not be holding my breath.
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I forgot to add one or two other thoughts about hospitals to my comments above.
Somehow or other, we have to get the doctors to understand that because they are paid with tax dollars, they are our employees. We do not work for them. They work for us!!
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I bet you every single person on these committees can drive and owns a personal vehicle and therefore, does not give two hoots where the southern tier hospital or urgent care centers ultimately get located. i note a few don’t even live in this town, and yes – I use the word “town” deliberately, because our region from the get go has always treated its people, its infrastructure and network of services as a rural community, although the region has become more urbanized over the past few decades. Kevin Smith flies in from Hamilton where the political powers that be at least know how to ensure centralized access to the services they have there, while not understanding that our political leaders still don’t get it and probably never will until enough of us stand up and force them to.
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