By Pat Scholfield
Have you ever had to use Ontario Patient Transfer {OPT} services to be
transported from a hospital to home?
Pat Scholfield
The Ombudsman is conducting an investigation into non-emergency medical
transportation services (MTS). In Niagara, the Niagara Health System
exclusively uses Ontario Patient Transfer, a private company out of Hamilton.
Since Port Colborne and Fort Erie had their ERs converted to Urgent Care
Centres, situations occur where a patient calling 911 is transported by ambulance
to a hospital in Welland, Niagara Falls or St. Catharines. Only under extremely
stringent circumstances can an ambulance attend either Port Colborne or Fort Erie former emergency departments.There is no ambulance service to return a patient back to their point of origin.
Once the patient arrives at the more distant hospital, they are eventually evaluated and if they are diagnosed, treated and discharged, they then must find a way home. If they choose OPT the patient or family must pay in advance. As an example if they are taken from Welland or Niagara Falls to Fort Erie the charge is a minimum of $180.00.
Since the Ombudsman announced their investigation January 11,2011 into private medical transfer services, it is now in full swing. They have already conducted more than 50 interviews with people and have received more than two dozen new complaints. Ombudsman Andre Marin said in a recent interview that several complaints have come from “whistleblowers” within the industry.
The investigation is looking into concerns about patent safety, lack of
infection control and poor training in MTSs and whether the Ministry of Health
and Long-Term Care has adequate measures in place to protect the public.
If you have hired OPT and experienced any problems and/or concerns with
the costs, please call the Ombudsman at 1-800-263-1830 or send an email to
thewatchdog@ombudsman.on.ca prior to the end of March, when their
investigation concludes.
Port Colborne and Fort Erie and the southern tier area are the hardest
hit with the necessity to use OPT for patient transfers.
Pat Scholfield is a south Niagara resident and longtime advocate for fair and accessible health care.
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
If medicare is expanded, everything costs less, and is more efficient, than the private model. Taxes may increase, but we won’t be faced with crushing financial burdens when we get sick. The current changes to our health care model is extraordinarily insular and short-sighted, despite evidence south of the border.
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As usual (and understandably) the writer of this article is almost exclusively parochial in her provincial vision. Only if the Ombudsman\s investigation of health-care ‘taxi’ services goes beyond Niagara will it be of local value – as ‘post-hospital’ people are being stranded all over Ontario.
For example, within the last month my brother drove himself to the emergency department of a good hospital in the north (Kirkland Regional). He was promptly and competently assessed and admitted to the intensive care unit (with an acute and first-time heart problem). Within a few days he was flown (through a snowstorm) to Sudbury, where a cardiac catheterization was capably done. Then, within a few days he was safely discharged from there – ‘onto the street’ – where I picked picked him up in my car and drove him the 250 miles back to his home.
In short, non-medical, bureaucratic messes similar to Niagara’s happen all over the province all the time to all kinds of people. Again, Niagara people (and your ‘leaders’), please look beyond yourselves and coordinate your efforts with others further afield.
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How is your brother’s story a non- medical bureaucratic mess? Your brother went to the local ER at Kirkland Regional, where he was competently assessed and treated. Later, due to the geographical isolation of the community, he was flown at considerable expense to another faciity.
Southern tier Niagara Region is not an isolated northern community. Why must the sick (and sometimes poor) of this region have to pay use fees, when there are more viable, efficient alternatives that the government could offer? People with money can handle user fees, those without can not. In many respects, this challenge is specific to Niagara since we’re not as isolated as the northern communities. As an aside, who paid for your brother’s plane ticket?
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Sorry Dr. Hogg, but I believe protests are better to work from the grass roots up. If we make appropriate changes locally, that may help others. Niagara’s heath system is in chaos and I believe one way to get necessary adjustments made to their flawed plan is by local voices growing louder and louder until Queen’s Park hears us and tries to correct their mistakes.
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Grass roots is the best way here. The bigger, less parochial issue that needs to be addressed though is NAFTA, specifically Ch.11, and P3 hospitals. The insinuation of private monies into Canadian Health Care is a mistake. There should be a fence around Health Care keeping private money out. If we don’t, equitable health care will continue to disintegrate, as will more favourable health outcomes. The minority rich will get richer, while the poor will get poorer. Just as in the States though, privatization will mean higher incomes for doctors, the pharmaceutical industry etc. and certain stock portfolios will benefit. Dr. Hogg is once again alluding to a more broad based approach without offering specifics. I would like to hear these specifics, since he necessarily knows the current system better than most.
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Hi Dr Hogg
As many patients without a family support system would not have a ride back to their home community, I wonder what the cost of Patient Transfer would be for the 250 mile trip.In Niagara it is calculated by OPT by the mile.
We also have an interesting concept for ambulance payments. EMS Niagara ambulance costs are billed at 145%. The Province pays 50% of all ambulance costs. the Region pays the 50% balance and then Niagara Health System issues a bill for $45.00 for an ambulance ride for which they have no financial involvement . This results in triple billing to the patient who already has paid through taxes both the Region and the Province. A small issue but indicative of the progressive move to down-loading expenses, user fees and privatization of medical care.
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I know I am without family supports to drive me back from a hospital, if they will not permit me to use public transit to go home. I don’t have the financial resources for ambulance or OPT either. With the “centres of excellence” model, most trips to the hospital will be non-emergency and not even involve ambulance. If you don’t drive or can’t get a ride, you are literally given a choice to spend hundreds of dollars on taxis, or to cancel or postpone your surgery.
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As the Welland Hospital doctor’s report pointed out, there are many people in Welland who will need access to Obstetrics clost to where they live, especially people without viable transportation, people without support systems etc., etc. And yet they are still planning to take these services from the hospital.
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Welland Doctors have expressed concern over the removal of many of their current services including Pediatrics, Mental Health Unit and of course Obstetrics and Maternity.
Expectant mothers from the Southern Tier have expressed concerns now about travel to Welland and Niagara Falls. In 2013 they will go the extra miles to the North end of St Catharines. Mothers and babies put at risk in emergency situations?
Another question to be asked…Will all Niagara babies born have St Catharines birth certificates?
So much for Home Town pride.
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Inadequate, inequitable access to Mental Health facillities and meds directly impacts suicide rates and homelessness. Moving these services to North St.Catharines erects another barrier to access, especially since many people do not have support systems.
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