By Pat Scholfield
The new interim CEO of the Niagara Health System – the NHS and the body responsible for managing most of Niagara’s hospital services – says she will not be changing the Hospital Improvement Plan (HIP) other than possibly minor tweaking.
Pat Scholfield
She approves of the “centres of excellence” and infers each hospital will have
its own specialty, which will result in better patient care.
As an example, she states Regional maternity services will be located at the new
hospital in west St. Catharines and cataract eye surgery will move to Welland.
CEO Matthews does not tell us there will be a long list of specialty services at
the new St. Catharines hospital besides maternity, including cancer, cardiac
catheterization, tertiary mental health, obstetrics, pediatrics, inpatient
gynecological, inpatient urology and others. Nor does she tell us under the HIP that Welland will lose obstetrics, pediatrics, inpatient gynecological, inpatient
urology, ear, nose and throat surgery, plastic surgery and orthopedics.
If you read through the Task Force report prepared by Welland physicians, it is
clear that with the loss of this long list of inpatient surgical specialties, it
is unlikely Welland hospital will be able to retain a viable 24/7 emergency
department.
Giving up all this in exchange for a “centre of excellence” for cataract eye
surgery is not a fair tradeoff in my mind.
I also have a question for CEO Matthews. Do you honestly think having all acute
and emergency hospital services located in the north and removing these services in the southern tier will result in better patient care for all Niagarans?
I will await her response and would also add the following.
It is commendable that the Health Care Committee of Welland is pursuing
legal options with the LHIN, but that could be a lengthily course of actions. Before it is complete Welland hospital could be dismantled and become a memory.
I don’t believe Wellanders realize they will be losing more that obstetrics
and pediatrics. All tolled they will lose between six and seven surgical specialties. They may retain a vital day surgery complex, but that will not be sufficient to retain a viable 24/7 ER in the future. According to the Task Force report released by the physicians of Welland, “Emergency Surgery is the linchpin in maintaining the acuity level of an acute hospital supporting a 24/7 ER.”
You cannot perform emergency surgery with your surgical specialties gone. Is this acceptable to Wellanders? If not call your councillor and tell them so.
(Pat Scholfield is a long-time Niagara south resident and vocal advocate for fairer, more accessible hospital services for all Niagara residents.)
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binominal Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
the NHS is making it more and more difficult for Niagarans to access services and the lack of getting to these facilities ,no viable transportation system in place, the record of the St,Catharines Hospitals of providing any services to St.Catharines in the prenatal area is abominable ,no Doctors on duty to stop a young patient from losing her baby. 23 hours at those sights no medical help, result ! stillborn baby delivered in the washroom. the NHS is a failure. and dangerous to our health.
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PS that baby would have been my first great grand child.
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George, transportation was identified as one of several factors that had to be RESOLVED before the “HIP” took place. However, when they brought Jack Kitts into the picture, the turn took place where it didn’t matter that thirty percent of Niagara’s adult population does not drive and as such, will likely be seriously disadvantaged when accessing any services at the new specialized clinics. On this note, I know of people who had already postponed or cancelled elective eye surgery that was to be done in Welland due to the patient’s inability to affordably travel to Welland. This situation is only going to get worse.
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