Niagara Resident And Health Care Advocate Urges Ontario Legislative Body To Support Region’s Hospital Needs

By Doug Draper

In front of a standing committee of Ontario’s legislatures this Jan. 25, Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie resident and head of a ‘Yellow Shirt Brigade’ of residents fighting to preserve hospital services in south Niagara, made the call for fairer access to those vital services for her friends and neighbours.

Yellow Shirt Brigade leader Sul Salzer

In Salzer’s address to the committee, holding public sessions for one day in Niagara Falls, she stressed the concerns so many people in southern and cental communities of the Niagara region feel – that their services are being diminished as the Niagara Health System,  the body the province created for amalgamating hospital services in Niagara, moves forward with its plans to integrate more and more services in a new hospital complex it is building at a west St. Catharines site in north Niagara, at a cost of more than $1.5 billion.

Salzer went on to conclude that additional funds from the province is not the answer to a fiscal hole the Niagara Health System has found itself in.

“It is now (the NH’S’s time) to practice fiscal prudence and live within their existing budgets.  It is now time for Health Care Dollars to reach the hospital floor. … With your recommendation, and legislative support, you can start a new trend across Ontario and send the message that you really are concerned about the care of your constituents. …

“That destination should not be the grandiose LHIN Headquarters, or for salaries for the 32 staff supporting a nine member supposed volunteer board. …
“That destination should not be for the $357,000 salary for a non-medical CEO (Debbie Sevenpifer) or the 169 staff on the sunshine list or for more consultants.

To read the full text of Salzer’s address to the provincial legislative committee on financial matters click on and keep reading.

PROVINCIAL BUDGET COMMITTEE HEARING
           Niagara Falls,  January 25/2010

Welcome to Niagara.

Members of the Budget Committee, Guests and Supporters of Better Health Care for the Citizens of Niagara.

As you start your week of hearings across the Province, I anticipate by weeks end the letters HST will have a familiar ring.

I want to introduce you to three other letters  NHS  Niagara Health System.

Unlike other presenters you may hear from we have come today to say Thank you.
Yes, thank you for the infusion by our Provincial Government of additional dollars you have dedicated for the Health Care of the Residents of Niagara.  Over the last six years you have provided a budget increase of 42%, a figure frequently referred to with pride by former Health Minister Caplan, and by current Health Minister Deb Matthews.

Having so said we have one question that deserves to be answered.  Just Where Did it Go??
Surely as the keepers of the Public Purse you have a tracking mechanism that tells you of value for dollar.  We can report to you that this funding did not improve the quality of Health Care in Niagara….Quite the opposite.

Your 42% produced Medical Bed Closures, Operating Room Closures, Program Closures, Emergency Room Closures, and Staff Lay-offs. The result is Code Gridlock.

Our Emergency Department wait times in the remaining facilities far exceed Provincial Averages.
Operations are delayed, and cancelled.  Just last week a surgeon complained of a serious Cancer surgery cancelled Monday and then on Tuesday at 3:00pm.  He was told to cancel again.  The reason—-No available bed.  His quote, which we support, ”More beds must not be closed”,  and yet 39 more beds are scheduled to close next month.

In Niagara we have a Death Rate that exceeds the Provincial average by approximately 36%.  Is it any wonder we question the second rate service we receive.

If the Niagara Health System were run as a Business the word Bankrupt would be applicable.

The NHS has a Capital Deficit of over $100 Million.
The NHS has an operating deficit of $18.8 Million, the highest in the Province.
They have expended their line of credit, and a co-signer is demanded before more is forthcoming.
The new P3 hospital being built in the North end of St Catharines, with 375 beds will cost the same $1.5 Billion as the new luxury Dubai Hotel with 900 Suites.
Hospital Building funds have been used for operating funds.

As an example of NHS mismanagement, and this bodies total lack of fiscal prudencey, they closed two Hospital Emergency Departments to save $2 Million dollars a year.
The resulting cost was $3 Million for the extra ambulances to transport residents of the Southern Tier to other hospitals.

All the problems here in Niagara started in late 2008, when a Hospital Improvement Plan was designed by staff of the NHS, and subsequently rubber stamped by the LHIN board.

Implementation of service reductions began immediately.  Less then one year later the LHIN reported that the Hospital Improvement Plan will result in limited savings, and will require significant capital funding, money we know that is not available, and yet they are proceeding with closures at an alarming rate.

This is not an improvement plan, and objections are heard from all the Municipal Councils of the Southern Tier, citizens and any patient caught up in the NHS system.

We attest to the well-known fact that more funding is needed for Health Care Provincially.  We only ask of you that when it flows from your central coffers that it have a destination.

That destination should not be the grandiose LHIN Headquarters, or for salaries for the 32 staff supporting a nine member supposed volunteer board,

That destination should not be for the $357,000 salary for a non-medical CEO or the 169 staff on the sunshine list or for more consultants.

That destination should be for the care of the patient in the Medical Bed, for the cancer patient whose surgery keeps being delayed, for the Mother who is carrying a dead fetus with little hope of getting into the Operating Room lineup, she was sent home from a cancelled surgery twice and crassly told, perhaps you will spontaneously abort.

That destination should be for the patient held in the curtained cubicle of an Emergency Department  for 3 days waiting for a bed.

That destination must be for 18 year old Reilly Anzivino, who might be alive today if the Southern Tier had an Emergency Room.

That destination must be for beds and medical staff.  Even the LHIN chairman says long wait times can be attributed to bed shortages, and yet across the Province we see bed closures, and medical and support staff layoffs.

In Summary,  our request to you is so very simple.  Please take this as a stipulation to the Honorable Deb Matthews, and the staff of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.  As future funding is released to support Health Care in Ontario every additional dollar must be destined to support care for actual patients.

Additional funds will not be peeled off by the Super LHIN, by the LHIN’S, by Consultants, by more committees and study groups, or by Administrative Groups like our Niagara Health System.  It is now, THEIR time to practice fiscal prudence and live within their existing budgets.  It is now time for Health Care Dollars to reach the Hospital floor.

With your recommendation, and legislative support, you can start a new trend across Ontario and send the message that you really are concerned about the care of your constituents.

You have the ability when the additional funding flows to put this stipulation in place.  THIS MONEY WILL BE USED FOR ACTUAL PATIENT CARE.

Thank You

(Please support Niagara At Large by visiting the site itself regularly. Clicking on www.niagaraatlarge.com is the only way to cast your vote as a reader for keeping this new online media venue for our region in operation.)