A Growing Call For Investigation Into Niagara Health System Hospital Cuts

A foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Isn’t it about time politicians in the north end of Niagara, Ontario stopped treating people in the southern tier of the region like collateral damage when it comes to hospital care?

Niagara hospital care advocate Pat Scholfield

At long last, isn’t it?

If that sounds a little harsh, too bad. As a resident of Niagara’s north end, I can hardly say how sad it is that so few municipal and provincial politicians on my end of the region – so parochial and out of touch with the rest of the region they are in their vision – care so little about the gutting of hospital services in Niagara’s southern tier. And why is that? Is it because they feel they can take some comfort in the fact that the Niagara Health System – a body created by the former provincial government of Mike Harris and Tim Hudak – is building its spanking new hospital complex, complete with a regional cancer and cardiac centre, in the region’s north end?

That may be okay for them but what about residents in Niagara’s central and south ends who are seeing their hospital services, including emergency room services, gutted while the Niagara Health System moves forward with investing more than $1 billion for new services at a north-end site in west St. Catharines?

Don’t people in central and south ends of the region deserve fair and equal access to hospital services too? Why, when it comes to hospital services, should they be treated like human garbage?

This June 28, at a meeting of Port Colborne’s city council, Port Colborne resident and community activist Pat Scholfield called for and received support a resolution, originally drawn up and passed by the Town of Fort Erie, for a provincial investigation into the NHS and its practices when it comes to the delivery of hospital services in Niagara.

That same resolution was also recently approved by the City of Welland and accepted in a series of reports by Niagara’s regional council. Niagara At Large, which you can visit at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com, for much more news and commentary on this issue, is posting below a full text of Scholfield’s June 28 presentation to Port Colborne council, followed by a copy of the Fort Erie resolution.

June 28, 2010 Presentation to Port Colborne Council re: Resolution to Investigate the NHS, Pat Scholfield

I am here tonight to speak in support of the Resolution you have received from Fort Erie. This resolution basically supports the recommendations in the Ontario Health Coalition report of May 17th calling for an investigation into the Niagara Health System. You may think this is redundant…. as similar resolutions have already been passed by this council.

However, this particular resolution is even more pertinent as it emanates from Health Hearings the Ontario Health Coalition conducted in 12 municipalities across Ontario in March. The purpose of the hearings was to examine conditions and concerns of citizens with their hospital and health systems since restructuring has occurred.

The hearing in Niagara was held at Welland and the OHC discovered issues regarding finances, human resources, management, quality and access to care the most serious that they witnessed. Since then, if anything, it has gotten worse as they have cut another 39 beds and eliminated or redeployed accompanying staff. I might add, over the winter the NHS has received around $25 million in base funding. They now have an annual operating budget of $400 million and yet none of that seems to have trickled down to help us out.

Recently I received an email from the Ontario Health Coalition stating, “The bed cuts in Niagara continue despite the fact that in our recent province-wide tour we heard among the most deeply disturbing stories of access to care problems in Niagara of any region we visited.”

The OHC included a story of a woman in Fort Erie whose husband passed away in Welland hospital from complications arising from what she feels is lack of proper health care available in Niagara in general, and the southern tier in particular. I would like to tell you a local, personal story that occurred in April to a Port Colborne family. The family took their loved one to Port Colborne hospital suffering from back pain.

At PCGH, they noted her hemoglobin was low and determined she needed to be sent to Welland hospital, where she received a blood transfusion. During treatment, in Welland, she required resuscitation. They then decided they did not have the proper resources available and she needed to be sent to St. Catharines General Hospital…. but there were no beds available. They waited 4 days. During this 4 day wait, she contracted pneumonia.

Then she was sent to Kitchener. She was very sick and physicians were concerned with her lungs. She was on a ventilator. In a few days they got the pneumonia under control and put in a pacemaker. After 5 days she was given a tracheotomy, taken out of CCU and placed in ICU. Eventually when they had bed openings, she was sent back to Welland. They placed her in ICU. Her traech needed to be suctioned occasionally and she was heavily sedated and was pulling tubes out and needed to be restrained.

Within 4 days she was moved to a ward on the 4th floor. When the family visited they were concerned. She couldn’t breathe and they called a nurse, who suctioned her traech. The family expressed their concern at leaving her in a ward, as their loved one was very hard of hearing, partially blind and couldn’t talk because of the traech. They worried if she couldn’t breathe, how would she call for help. They wanted her back in ICU, but staff gave assurance she would be well looked after.

The next morning the family got a phone call. Their loved one had stopped breathing. The family is tortured…would their loved one have survived if she had gotten care for her serious condition right away…. instead of waiting 4 days to be transferred to Kitchener…. because of a lack of beds in St. Catharines? Would she still be alive if they had kept her in ICU in Welland, where closer monitoring was available?

If they had been able to give a blood transfusion in Port Colborne, would she have needed to be resuscitated in Welland? They have more questions. This is a true story. I am not releasing the names as yet, because the family wants to check out a few things before going public…. but I can verify the above information. This is a condensed version.

There is more detail to the story, but I can tell you it was a nightmare…and not something our citizens should have to endure. This is absolutely not timely, equitable access to even the most fundamental, adequate health care. And let us not forget, since this tragic experience, the NHS has cut another 39 beds and either cut or redeployed frontline staff. This is not a unique situation in south Niagara. We have a growing list of people who have lost a loved one and felt the “system” failed them.

We need an investigation into the NHS…and we need it now! Now…I am very hopeful you will deal with this resolution and pass it tonight. Pat Scholfield.

The Fort Erie resolution

The Honourable Deborah Matthews Minister of Health and Long Term Care 10th Floor, Hepburn Block 80 Grosvenor Street Toronto ON M7A 2C4

Honourable and Dear Madam: Re: Endorsement of Local Recommendations Contained in Ontario Health Coalition Report dated May 17, 2010 At the Council meeting of May 25, 2010 the following resolution was passed respecting the above referenced matter:

WHEREAS the Ontario Health Coalition released its report on May 17, 2010 entitled “Towards Access and Equality: Realigning Ontario’s Approach to Small and Rural Hospitals to Serve Public Values’ on Small and Rural Hospital Services in Ontario, which resulted from hearings they conducted in 12 communities, including South Niagara, conducted by a panel of health care and health policy experts, and

WHEREAS this report confirms the serious concerns expressed by Niagara municipalities in various resolutions passed by the Councils of Welland, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Niagara Falls, Pelham and Thorold, in reference to the effects of hospital restructuring under the Niagara Health System’s Hospital Improvement Plan, and

WHEREAS the leadership of the NHS, the HNHB LHIN and the MOHLTC has not heretofore responded to these concerns;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Municipal Council of the Town of Fort Erie that it hereby endorses the following recommendations contained in the OHC Report under Section la. Access to Care — Local Recommendations:

The provincial government must send an investigator under the provisions of the Public Hospitals Act to investigate serious complaints and unresolved issues in the Niagara Health System. Issues regarding finances, human resources, management, quality and access to care in Niagara are among the most serious that we witnessed in Ontario.

This panel supports the requests of the nurses, physicians, municipalities and MPP’s who have called for a provincial investigator. In addition to investigating the serious clinical, management and financial issues that have been raised, the investigator should conduct or set a process for the immediate review and evaluation of the impact of the service cuts and closures in Niagara.

This review should include meaningful and accessible public input. A clear plan to improve access to emergency care, intensive care, and acute care should be established, with timelines for implementation.

The process should be open and transparent. The proposals put forward by the municipalities deserve an answer.

8. The provincial government must place a moratorium on closures of emergency departments. Local Health Integration Networks should be directed to stop the closures of local emergency departments, including those proposed for amalgamated hospitals.

There is no appropriate assessment of capacity and policy to ensure reasonable access Our Focus: Your Future Mailing Address: The Corporation of the Town of Fort Erie Municipal Centre, I Municipal Centre Drive Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada L2A 2S6 Office Hours 8:30 am, to 5:00 p.m. Phone (905) 871-1600 Fax (905) 871-4022 Web-Site: http://www.forterie.on.ca The Honourable Deborah Matthews Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Page two to urgent and emergent care in these regions and restructuring costs have not been assessed or approved. There is poor alignment of planning for capital redevelopment and proposed changes to services.

Provincial policy and planning to meet baseline service targets and other safeguards for public access must precede further hospital restructuring.~

THAT: The Minister of Health and Long Term Care be respectfully requested to appoint an investigator at the earliest opportunity to carry out the above referenced investigations, and further

THAT: This resolution be circulated to all area municipalities and Region of Niagara for support and further that it be circulated to all area provincial and federal members, Niagara Health System and the HNHB LHIN. The Town of Fort Erie respectfully requests that you appoint an investigator at the earliest opportunity to carry out the investigations referenced in the resolution. We thank you for your attention to this matter, which is very important to our community and to others in Niagara.