By Doug Draper
Peter Kormos, the NDP representative serving a Welland Riding at Queen’s Park that spans Welland, Port Colborne, Thorold and the south end of St. Catharines, has tabled a petition from residents in the region, calling for an investigation of the Niagara Health System.
Welland riding MPP Peter Kormos slamming government on hospital care.
The same call for an investigation of the NHS – the board responsible for managing a majority of hospitals in the Niagara area – was supported earlier this year by several of Niagara’s local municipalities, including Welland, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Thorold and St. Catharines. Following lengthy debates this fall, the same call for an independent look into how the NHS is managing hospitals across the region was not supported by Niagara’s regional council.
The regional government’s naysaying has not stopped Kormos from taking a petition, signed by more than 7,000 residents, to Queen’s Park however. The wording of the petition, as written into the records at Queen’s Park this December 1, speaks for itself. Niagara At Large therefore runs it below in full.
God bless the government of this province if it chooses to ignore it.
Official Records for 1 December 2010 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO PETITIONS <> HOSPITAL SERVICES Mr. Peter Kormos:
I have a petition addressed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: “Whereas the Niagara Health System’s (NHS) closure of the ERs in Port Colborne and in Fort Erie has led to increases of wait times of more than 18 hours for complex care in the ERs of Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland; “Whereas the closure of the two ERs has led to an increase in travel time to the remaining ERs, thus endangering the lives of patients in need of critical care.
Two people so far have died in the ambulance en route to the Welland hospital from Fort Erie and Port Colborne;
“Whereas the Niagara Health System increased the taxpayers’ burden to pay for additional ambulances and paramedics without first consulting municipalities and the public;
“Whereas the Niagara Health System, by greatly reducing the number of beds available in all of its hospitals, created a serious bed shortage resulting in the cancellation of surgeries and patients waiting in the ER for days before being transferred for appropriate care;
“Whereas the Niagara Health System, by drastically reducing the number of nurses, medical professionals and support staff, has created a situation where due to a lack of staffing surgeries are cancelled, wait times in the ERs have increased, ambulance gridlock is the norm, and housekeeping and maintenance of hospitals have deteriorated;
“Whereas the Niagara Health System has reduced and cut hospital services in many municipalities, thereby denying equal access to hospital care for over 50,000 people in Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Welland. Higher transportation costs for ambulance and patient transfer have created an unfair barrier to health care for those residents;
“Whereas the Niagara Health System, by continuing to implement its restructuring plan (hospital improvement plan) without first evaluating its impact to date on patient care and access to hospitals, will make further cuts to hospital services and beds in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland and adversely affect over 300,000 residents;
“We, the undersigned, urge the Legislative Assembly of Ontario under the provisions of the Public Hospitals Act to send an independent investigator to investigate the Niagara Health System and to act quickly on his/her recommendations in order to improve the quality of management, patient care and access to hospital services throughout the region and to meet all of Niagara’s communities’ growing health care needs, and to ensure that there is a substantive improvement in the quality and accessibility to health care in the Niagara region.”
This petition is signed by approximately 7,000 people. It’s certified by the Clerk, pursuant to the standing orders, and I have affixed my signature and endorse its proposal. The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): That’s a new record, over two and a half minutes.
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