So The Niagara Health System Is Running On A Surplus Budget Now. At What Cost To Services At Our Region’s Hospitals?

 By Doug Draper

Well, well, well.

The Niagara Health System – the organization the former Ontario government of Mike Harris established as an amalgamation of hospital services on the Niagara, Ontario side of the border – is finally operating with a surplus of $19 million, according to figures compiled at the end of this past March and reported in a CBC story this June 18.

That compared to drowning in red ink with one of the largest deficits for any hospital board in the province – running at $18.8 million and counting – a year ago at this time.

And how did the Niagara Health System manage to go from broke to a surplus in such a short period of time?

Certainly a recent infusion of about $49 million from the province’s Liberal government to partially make up for under-funding of Niagara’s hospitals going back to the Conservative government years of Mike Harris and one of his favourite former cabinet ministers – the now leader of the provincial Conservative Party and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak – has been a big help.

Harris/Hudak and company set up this abomination of an amalgamation without giving them the extra funding they needed to bring hospital services together in a fair, accessible way for all Niagara residents, from north to south, and east to west. The former Conservative government essentially left our hospital services twisting in the wind.

So it is a bit hard to take Hudak slamming the McGuinty government over the continued diminishing of quality services at hospitals across Niagara.

Perhaps McGuinty and company, including his local cabinet buddy, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, and Hudak and his partisan friends should be asked the same questions.

What good does wiping out the Niagara Health System’s fiscal deficit do if it means a slashing of ever more beds, of emergency departments in southern Niagara communities like Fort Erie and Port Colborne, and other services? What good does it do if it means growing number of complaints, legal actions and calls for inquests from Niagara residents who feel their friends and loved ones did not receive the care they needed at critical times, that sometimes made the difference between life and death?

What kind of a price tag would McGuinty or Bradley or Hudak place on that kind of deficit?

Niagara At Large is going to post now a note from Pat Scholfield, a brave Port Colborne resident and hospital advocate who, in the opinion of this news site, should be running the Niagara Health System, to the report posted online by the CBC. Her remarks will be followed by a link to the CBC story.

Niagara At Large encourages you to follow up by posting your own comments below and to letting McGuinty, Bradley, Hudak and our other provincial representatives know that wiping out a deficit at the expense of quality health care is not a solution.

The following remarks are from Pat Scholfield.
 
“The above (CBC-online) article states the Niagara Health System showed a startling turnaround as a year ago they had the largest deficit in Ontario of $18.8 million and have ended up with a $19 million surplus at the end of March.

”Then we discover they have received a provincial cash injection of $49 million. WOW! Just imagine what their deficit would have been without this massive injection….$30 million!!!!

”And this is after they have closed the emergency departments in Port Colborne and Fort Erie and cut over 30 beds and a number of staff and have currently cut another 39 beds and some staff. Services have also been consolidated such as opthamology and orthopedics.

”When you read the latest Complex Care Report released by the HNHB LHIN you also discover the NHS will be cutting another 41 beds this coming year.

”Are you listening (Ontario Health Minister) Deb Matthews and Premier McGuinty? …. We need an investigation in Niagara under the Public Hospitals Act as we have requested.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/18/ont-hospitals.html#socialcomments#ixzz0u9kcDhsg

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/18/ont-hospitals.html

Niagara At Large is also posting the following media release, dated July 19, from the office of Ontario Conservative opposition leader Tim Hudak.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak Calls on Dalton McGuinty to
Stop Cuts to Hamilton and Niagara Health Care Services
  
GRIMSBY – Ontario PC Leader and Niagara West-Glanbrook MPP, Tim Hudak, renewed his call today for Dalton McGuinty to come out from behind his failed Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) system and stop the cuts being made to frontline health services that Hamilton and Niagara families need. 
 
Dalton McGuinty’s unelected, unaccountable, and largely anonymous Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant (HNHB) LHIN recently ordered the closure of 65 beds in Niagara and Hamilton.  These are beds designated for patients in need of complex treatment such as restorative care or end-of-life care.
 
Hudak renewed his call for McGuinty to stop diverting precious health care dollars to pay for his bloated LHIN bureaucracy and focus health care dollars where they are needed most – on frontline health care services.
 
QUOTES:
 
“While Dalton McGuinty wasted over $1 billion health care dollars during the Liberal eHealth scandal, Niagara and Hamilton families have seen their local health services get cut time and time again.” 
— Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak, MPP Niagara West-Glanbrook
 
“Executives in the bloated Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant LHIN bureaucracy treated themselves to a fancy new office and fat pay raises while trying to convince Niagara and Hamilton families their cupboards were bare. A Tim Hudak Government will do things differently. We will focus health care dollars where they are needed most – on frontline health care services.”
— Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak, MPP Niagara West-Glanbrook
 
QUICK FACTS:
 
· Since 2006-2007, more than $176 million health care dollars have been diverted away from frontline health care and directed towards salaries and administration for Dalton McGuinty’s unelected, unaccountable LHINs.

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