By Doug Draper
Wiping their hands of the Niagara Health System, a majority of Welland city councillors have agreed to seek legal advise on how to possibly stop a “hospital improvement plan” from moving ahead that could see continued reduced cuts to hospital services in Welland and other parts of south Niagara.
Welland city councillor Frank Campion
The motion to seek legal advise on where next to go to protect and preserve south Niagara’s hospital services was put forward and approved this February 1 by Welland councillor Frank Campion.
“I think we have hit a dead end with the NHS,” Campion, who has served as chair of the city’s Health Care Committee, told Niagara At Large in an interview. “It is time to take our fight beyond the NHS to the LHIN (the ‘Local Health Integration Network for this and neighbouring region, including Hamilton, Burlington, Haldimand and others that is supposed to be governing bodies like the NHS) and to the province.”
“We need to look at our legal options,” said Campion. “We need to see if we can get an injunction to stop the HIP (the NHS’s hospital improvement plan that is calling for many hospital services to go to a new hospital complex in north St. Catharines when it is opened sometime in the next two years.)”
Another piece of Campion’s motion, also approved by Welland’s council, called for representatives from the Welland council to work more closely with other Niagara municipalities to preserve hospital services for all the region’s residents. That motion calls on Welland to engage with other municipalities across the region to find the best possible cure for hospital services, up to and including re-institituting acute-care services in south Niagara where, by the way, most of the growth is planned to grow, even if the NHS didn’t know that when it chose north Niagara for super-hospital complex for the region.
Says Welland councillor Frank Campion of his approved motion on this issue; “I am really pleased with the support I am getting from this council. … Everyone on this (recently elected Welland council) now agrees that this is a big, important issue for this city and for south Niagara.”
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