News from Niagara’s Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster
Queen’s Park, Ontario – This past Thursday, April 2nd Cindy Forster, the NDP MPP for the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland, called on PremierKathleen Wynne government to stop its plans to shut down Niagara hospitals following a report that warns of the impacts of current plans to close five hospitals in the Niagara region.
Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster
“Today, we are calling on the Minister of Health, to re-evaluate the closures currently planned for the Niagara Health System,” said Forster. “This report confirms that the decision to close Niagara’s hospital is not backed by sound evidence and will have a detrimental impact on healthcare services for Niagara families that depend on them.”
The report, Niagara Health System: Under Threat, by Dr. John Lister, an U.K. international health policy expert from Coventry University and Director of London Emergency Health, was released at Queen’s Park today by the Ontario Health Coalition.
Dr. Lister notes that Kevin Smith’s report recommending the closures is unusual for its lack of evidence to back the planned closures, and said the plan to close Niagara-on-the-Lake’s inpatient hospital beds will drive up hospital overcrowding levels across Niagara to “dizzying heights.” Such cuts would “create a system permanently living on the edge of crisis.”
“The Wynne government’s decision to close Niagara’s hospitals has been proven to be shortsighted and lacks rational justification,” said Forster. “This Liberal government has a responsibility to ensure that our publicly funded health care system is transparent and needs to be held accountable for putting Niagara’s healthcare on the line.”
The Welland MPP is investigating the unilateral decision to close Niagara’s hospitals, but her FOI’s (requests for information under Ontario’s Freedom of Information Act) have faced closed doors.
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Niagara At Large 
“Province Putting Patients First by Improving Access to Health Care in Burlington” at the expense of the Niagara Region (TRUE or FALSE)? As a politician, Kathleen Wynne should be aware of perception.
The Wynne Government “Steals from the poor and gives to the rich”. We need look no further than the HNHB-LHIN. While the NHS, with the approval of the HNHB-LHIN, closes the beds at the NOTL Hospital and pushes for the closing of the Welland Hospital (opened 1960) because it is too expensive to upgrade, there is an announcement from the Ontario Newsroom that the Government is investing up to $371.3 MILLION to expand and modernize the Joseph Brant Hospital (opened 1961) in Burlington.
.The Brant Tower will provide not only 172 additional beds but a number of medical services while we, in the Niagara Region, experience the closing of beds forcing patients to exit hospital care in favour of having to rely on expanded home medical care and private clinics.
There is one year difference in the ages of the two hospitals. The Welland Hospital, opened in 1960, is too expensive to repair the other, Joseph Brant Hospital, opened 1961, gets almost $4 MILLION to upgrade and provide a wide variety of services. Burlington is part of the GHTA while Niagara is a GTHA FRINGE area.
It is time the Wynne Government acknowledges that Ontario extends beyond the GHTA!
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