By Doug Draper
The Niagara Health System should not be allowed to sit on a “steering committee” setting the terms for an investigation into the way it is managing the region’s hospital services, says Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati.
Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati
“That would be a clear conflict of interest,” Diodati told Niagara At Large during a phone interview this June 2 from a conference for Canadian municipalities he was attending on the east coast. “This has to pass the smell test and the way it sits now, it doesn’t,” added the mayor of information Niagara’s regional chairman Gary Burroughs received in a May 31 letter from the province’s health minister Deb Matthews.
In the letter, Matthews forms Burroughs and the regional council, including the 12 municipal mayors sitting on it, that she has finally agreed to what she is calling a “third-party evaluation” of the “hospital improvement plan” the Niagara Health System has been implementing across the region “would be valuable.”
Matthews goes on to note that “an evaluation would be best served by requesting the Hamilton Niagara Haildimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) establish a tripartite steering committee to develop the terms of reference for the evaluation. Representation on this committee must include LHIN board members, NHS board members and members of regional council as determined by the regional chair.”
Diodati told Niagara At Large he is also concerned about the LHIN playing any kind of direct role in an evaluation or investigation since it approved the NHS’s hospital plan.
“I would like to see a retired judge who will make a true, third-party decision based on the facts (steer an investigation),” he said, adding that he also believes front-line doctors, nurses and health-care staff should be among those invited to share information. “I absolutely want assurance that we can have input from anyone (including NHS staff) without reprisal.”
Matthews finally said yes to some kind of evaluation after more than a year of pressure from citizen groups, and seven municipalities, including Port Colborne, Fort Erie, Welland, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Wainfleet and Niagara-on-the-Lake, and finally the regional council earlier this year, demanding an investigation of the NHS’s hospital plans. Those plans, tabled two years ago, have already included the closing of emergency room services at hospitals in Port Colborne and Fort Erie, and more acute care services are scheduled to go to the new hospital being built in west St. Catharines when it is opened sometime within the next two years.
In a media release this June 1, the province’s NDP leader Andrea Horwath said the findings of the investigation should be released before this Oct. 6’s Ontario election.
“The people of Niagara should see findings from this investigation before October 6th. If the investigation isn’t complete they should share preliminary findings,” said Horwath.” In the meantime, a moratorium on service cuts should be put in place immediately. The public must have a direct and major role in any investigation that will affect the health care of Niagarans.”
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Thank goodness for the integrity of Mayors like Diodati and Badaway who will continue to demand a fair playing field for the review of the NHS Hospital “Improvement “Plan.
There is no viable reason to include the NHS in the process so they can “explain the rationale of the closures”. They have had two long years to try to come up with a story that can be swallowed. Even the financial savings excuse no longer holds water as the Province invests more and more and the Southern Tier gets less.
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Like Sue, I’m happy and relieved at this response from our local representatives to Matthews’ sudden “change of heart”. Why Queen’s Park continues to believe that the residents of this region are naive and stupid is beyond me — but it does. Good for Diodati and Burroughs for calling Matthews on her transparent duplicity. And good for Andrea Horwath for bringing in an important consideration that nobody else has mentioned: “The public must have a direct and major role in any investigation that will affect the health care of Niagarans.” So, how about it, gentlemen? Don’t those ordinary citizens who have been fighting the HIP for nearly three years now deserve a place at the table? In a democracy with a public health system, are patients not stakeholders, too?
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It is imperative that a citizen that has indepth knowledge & has been advocating better health care for our region also be on the committee. Three that come to mind ( I’m sure there are others) are Sue Salzer & Joy Russell of Fort Erie & Pat Scholfield of Welland. They are informed individuals who have been championing the cause from the beginning & would in my opinion be an asset & a “citizen perspective” which must be valued if success is to be truly achieved!!
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The most obvious person to represent the region is John Teal.
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I agree with Anne’s choices but there MUST be hospital staff involved and NOT staff as picked by the individual hospitals since they will be chosen because they are, to put it bluntly, boot-lickers who will do as ordered . They should also be front line people who would be protected by their unions as opposed to head nurses or supervisors who are not. I have no clue as to how front line staff members will be able to participate without repercussions. The NHS has a way of dealing will staff who do not follow commands from above. They are often unceremoniously escorted from employment and the grounds for some trumped up reason. Recent retirees or staff due to retire soon may be reasonable.
Representatives of individual unions should also be involved such as ONA who can protect and represent nurses and groups such as the OHC who represent the public, as they may be less prone to intimidation.
Picking of business people or those “respected in the community” but with little pertinent knowledge is a perpetual mistake.
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History says that John Teal knows about running hospitals.
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