Could Niagara, Ontario’s Hospital System Still Be In The Red?

Foreward by Doug Draper

Okay, so which is it? Is Niagara, Ontario’s hospital system still in the red or is it now in the black?

The Niagara Health System's Welland hospital site has experienced 22 more bed closings in recent months and it is not alone in coping with service cuts across the Niagara, Ontario region.

It is the same question Pat Scholfield, a Port Colborne resident and advocate for Niagara hospitals services, asks in a letter to the editor Niagara At Large is posting below. And there is good reason for the question.

According to a report broadcast this June 18 by the CBC, and based on figures it obtained from Local Health Integration Networks overseeing hospitals across the province, the Niagara Health System, as of this past March, has a surplus of $19 million, thanks to an infusion of funding from the province that erased an $18.8 million deficit (one of the worst in the province) it was wrestling with last year.

But this July 20, according to stories published in the St. Catharines Standard, Welland Tribute and Niagara Falls Review chain of newspapers, the NHS is still nursing a deficit of about $3 million – keeping it on the left side of the ledger with about third of the other hospital systems in the province that are collectively experiencing a funding shortfall from the Ontario government of about $107 million.

Whatever figure is true for the NHS, the fact remains that the operating funds it has at its disposal are not doing nearly enough to save emergency rooms at hospitals in Port Colborne and Fort Erie, or other  front-line services in hospitals across the region where cuts and longer wait times have for patients have become epidemic in recent years.

Certainly, one cannot help but wonder how much of any additional funding the NHS is receiving from the province is going to frontline services given the cuts that continue to occur.

Here is Pat Scholfield’s letter to the editor –
 
“According to the (Welland) Tribune, July 20,  the Niagara Health System (NHS) is still in the red–$3.4 million after receiving an additional $14 million in base funding and $25 million in one time funding. NHS chief financial officer Angela Zangari says  “A deficit of $3 million is anticipated for next year as well” and “We don’t expect a surplus until 2013.”
 
According to a recent story from CBC News, the NHS, which had the largest deficit in Ontario a year ago of $18.8 million ended up with a $19 million surplus at the end of March. The report also states a spokeswoman from the LHIN said the NHS has received $49 million in provincial cash injections.
 
Which story do we believe…the account from the respected CBC News media….or the NHS, who has lied to us many times in the past?
 
If the NHS received $49 million and posted a $19 million surplus….would the NHS have posted a $30 million deficit without this cash injection? This is after they have cut numerous beds, staff, services and shut down emergency departments in Port Colborne and Fort Erie.
 
With all this money flowing in, the NHS is still cutting beds and services and will continue to do so in the future. Zangari stated she didn’t anticipate additional reductions to services. 
 
Go to the HNHB LHIN web site and read the Complex Care Integrated Report. Look at the chart on pg. 19 and you will see that an additional 41 beds beyond the 39 they just cut are proposed to be cut in the coming year in Niagara.

(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)