Fort Erie Council Calls On Canadian Association Of Emergency Physicians To Investigate Impacts of Emergency Room Closures In Fort Erie And Port Colborne

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 By Doug Draper

The council of Fort Erie, Ontario voted overwhelmingly this April 27 to call on the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians to investigate and report on the impacts of emergency room and other hospital service cuts in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.

The closure of the ERs (or Eds for emergency departments, as the council calls them) in those two southern tier communities, carried out last year by the Niagara Health System, the provincially created body responsible for managing most of the hospital services in the Niagara region, was greeted with outrage by many residents in the region’s southern tier.

Many residents in the southern part of the region argue that the closure of the ERs is a menu for possible death for people who may find themselves in need of critical care. There is already one incident of an 18-year-old resident of Fort Erie, Reilly Anzovino, involved in a serious car crash last Christmas season, who died shortly after being ambulanced from her town to an ER in Welland. A provincial inquest has been called into the circumstances surrounding her death.

Here is the resolution passed this April 27 by the Fort Erie council.  

WHEREAS the Niagara Health System under instructions from the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant  Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) prepared the Hospital Improvement Plan (HIP) in 2008, resulting in the Emergency Departments (EDs) at Port Colborne General Hospital and Douglas Memorial Hospital in Fort Erie being converted to Urgent Care Centres in 2009, and

WHEREAS the HIP was prepared without input from any expert body such as the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP), Ontario Medical Association, Ontario Nurses’ Association or Emergency Medical Services, and

WHEREAS there have been at least two questionable deaths in 2009; one in Port Colborne and one in Fort Erie; creating concern whether these deaths may have been preventable, had the EDs in Port Colborne and Fort Erie still been fully functional, and

WHEREAS Dr. Jim Ducharme, Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine is on record requesting a moratorium be placed on ED closures, and

WHEREAS Dr. Alan Drummond, spokesperson for CAEP is on record as proposing that a template be developed for an effective emergency health-care system prior to any ED closures, and

WHEREAS the Integrated Health Service Plan 2010 to 2013, (IHSP) prepared by the LHIN is a roadmap for health system change for the next three years and under “Rationale for Strategic Decisions”, (pg. 35) it states:  “Is the level of risk involved acceptable?, and

WHEREAS the public is unaware of any proper risk assessment ever completed prior to closing down the two EDs in South Niagara, and

WHEREAS in the IHSP the LHIN poses the question, “How will change assure access to timely, safe, quality services no matter where people live?” (pg.9), and

WHEREAS the population of Fort Erie and Port Colborne lack access to inter municipal transportation and have a larger than provincial average of seniors and low socio-economic residents, and

WHEREAS the Canada Health Act states in the preamble: “Whereas the Parliament of Canada recognizes: that continued access to quality health care without financial or other barriers will be critical to maintaining and improving the health and well-being of Canadians;”

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Municipal Council of the Town of Fort Erie that it hereby supports the combined efforts of the Southern Tier Municipalities to respectfully request the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians to investigate and report on the results of the closure of the medical beds, the operating rooms and the emergency rooms at the hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne and its effect on timely and equitable access to health care for the population of the Southern Tier of Niagara, and further

THAT: Such a report be considered in the development of a template for effective emergency health care in the Province of Ontario, and further

THAT: This resolution be circulated to the Southern Tier Municipalities, Members of Parliament and Members of Provincial Parliament in Niagara, the Ontario Medical Association, the Ontario Nurses Association and the Regional Municipality of Niagara for support.