A Commentary by Doug Draper
I used to try to give these people some benefit of the doubt by saying; ‘Well, maybe they’re just a little naïve or incompetent.’
Paul Leon, at left and back in the chair's seat again at the NHS, back in the old days in 2004 with board of trustees liaison Jeff Morgan, now-gone NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpiffer, also-gone chief of staff William Shragge and board of trustees liaison Anne Ashdown.
In more recent times I’ve come to a conclusion I should have seven or eight years ago. They are frigging stupid! When it comes to being open, honest and responsive to the public they serve, not to mention their own frontline staff, they are dumber than a box of shingle nails.
I’m talking about the Niagara Health System – the amalgamated board created by the former Ontario Conservative government of Mike Harris a decade ago to manage most of the critical hospital services we have in Niagara, Ontario. That is no minor responsibility for a body of senior administrators and a board of trustees that I am daring to call stupid.
Yet how else can you describe a group that, even while it continues to undergo intense public scrutiny and suffer from a crisis of community confidence that can hardly be matched by any other public body in the region, still goes on shuffling around the same old faces on its board rather than find new blood?
At its annual general meeting this June 21, the NHS’s 13-member board decided to charge on with the appointment of only three new representatives and it appointed as its chair Paul Leon, a corporate lawyer based in Welland who served in that very same position from 2002 to 2006 when the NHS was already in the process of developing and implementing its hospital restructuring plans. It was also the period in which the NHS chose the site in west St. Catharines for possibly the only new hospital complex that will be built in this region for decades to come.
Nothing personal against Paul Leon, who returns to the chair’s position now vacated by Betty-Lou Souter who will continue sitting on the board (just as Leon has over the past year during his hiatus as chair). But doesn’t the NHS see that it might be a good idea at a time when it is about to face an independent review of its hospital plans, called for by a majority of Niagara’s local municipalities, the regional government and thousands of residents, to find some new faces to serve on its board rather than continuing to hold on to so much baggage from the past?
It’s as if these people can’t help but carry on with a game musical chairs on the Titanic while the dance band is playing ‘Send in the Clowns’. Who do they have planning their public relations strategies – Charlie Sheen?
Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, who said she’s hoping this NHS review she finally approved a month ago after more than a year of Niagara residents and politicians, lobbyling for it, will help restore public confidence in Niagara’s hospital system, ought to be concerned about this. At what point is Matthews finally going to say that after years of her Liberal government trying to cut this body some slack around responding to public concerns, it doesn’t even seem to know how to take advantage of an opportunity (in this case, its power to decide who it appoints to its board) to help itself.
Kim Craitor, the Liberal government MPP for the riding of Niagara Falls, told Niagara At Large this June 22 that as much as he doesn’t have anything against Leon as a person, he was “schocked” and “extremely disappointed” to find out that the NHS would bring him back to the chair’s job rather than find a new person who may be able to make a fresh start with the public.
“I thought the board would show some common sense and initiative here,” said Craitor who said he plans on sharing his concerns with the health minister. “It missed a real opportunity to put some new blood on that board that may win back confidence in the NHS.”
Pat Scholfield, a longtime south Niagara citizen advocate for fair, accessible access to hospital services in the region, said she was also disappointed to see Leon back. She said Leon was still chair of the board the first time around when, in 2006, Port Colborne residents were upsite over the NHS closing the Critical Care Unit at the hospital site there.
“I remember Mr. Leon insisting the bed closures were only due to a shortage of skilled nurses and he assured us that bed closures and fears of hospital closures, have much to do with “innuendo” and rumours that are swirling around the NHS,” said Scholfield. “He convinced us the NHS would restore our CCU and they supported our community hospital. … Then in the summer of 2008, the NHS’s ‘Hospital Improvement Plan’ was released, and look what happened. Our emergency department was closed as well as our operating rooms and all acute beds. Our hospital became, in de facto, a long term care home.”
You can bet that Scholfied is far from the only Niagara residents who has those kind of memories and you would think that the NHS would want to do its best to put that kind of baggage behind it as it moves forward with what the province’s health minister hopes will be a confidence-building mission. But apparently not.
How stupid!
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Niagara At Large 
NHS are proving to be made of teflon with the protection of the LHIN and Minister Matthews.The Politicians will find this a more difficult war to win then the War of 1812. The more roadblocks the NHS put in place to true systemic improvements, the more resolve Niagara has to obtain a full comprehensive independent review.
Anything less will perpetrate the Liberal sham of giving us a token kiss-off.
The LHIN has put in place severely limiting areas for the review even before a Committee can be fully appointed.
The politicians on the other hand want further inclusion of governance issues.
So let the Games begin,,,the betting line now stands at NHS 10 to Politicians 1
Did I mention Souter and Leon have been named to the Committee
The line just went to 20 to 1.
A good starting point will be for Regional Reps to refuse to participate in their games until the playing field levels out.
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And so the incest continues ……..
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More crap on same crap pile. I don’t remember who’s quote this is but ” if you do the same things, and expect a different outcome, then you are a fool” . Here we are again with the same liars in different chairs. The fate of us in the south was determined when they put the new hospital as far away from us as they could. We are expendable and they don’t give a shit, because, if they did, maybe they were get different expertise than the same old tired crew members. They have ignored other models, ignored demographics, ignored need, all in the name of a new hospital we can’t even get to. If they did realy care, then maybe they would listen, instead of talk. In the good old days that was called communication. Now we live by dictate, suffer and die by decree.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/andre-picard/finally-a-health-care-paper-that-makes-sense/article2071521/
This report clearly provides guidance on how to improve our healthcare system.
As an aside, I am disappointed that NAL has turned into a bulletin board for the NDP. Can we not keep politics out of this site and stick to issues that concern Niagara. I hope so!
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It would seem to me that the best course of action would be to have an elected hospital board, much like school boards. This would give groups like the Yellow Shirt Brigade an opportunity to change the system, or learn how dire the choices really are. It would also greatly increase accountability in the management of services as dear as health care.
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It is a damn shame that people like Peter Mazzei has a soap box in the Globe to rant from. The fact that we have NAL and Doug Draper who lives among us to witness the empires being built and perpetuated by a group of “Old Boys” is heart warming and that he initiated the only platform we, the less intelligent, have to be heard from..Thank You Doug Draper…So Mr. Peter we bow to your intellect but not to your policies….what “IS” and “HAS” been evolving in this Niagara Region is, if not totally criminal, is then at least a flagrant state of malfeasance.
You speak of Politics Peter as if the Globe was not a player but we have been over many years a witness to the corporate slant the Globe employs….How did Lawrence Martin ever survive????
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Many people think that our health care choices are “dire”. I disagree. A universal health care model is far more cost-effective and efficient than any privatized model. The same holds true for hospitals: privatized models are inefficient compared to public systems. If we wisely spend our money, we will NOT accept privatization in health care.
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Pharmacare, as pointed out in the Globe article, is also a good idea: bulk buying of meds by government. Currently, too many people can’t afford to fill their prescriptions.
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What makes you think the NHS mandarins are stupid? Maybe they are evil.
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After the Doctors managed against Chairwoman Souter’s ranting demands to retired Dr. W.. Shragge from the position of Chief of Staff the Liberal Government “Appointed” him CEO and Chairman of the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee Whatever the hell that patronage group ‘s duties are??? Leon, it was obvious he wanted back into the chair of the NHS people like him are not content being players they need the Headlines and Souter will probable get the Chair back when Leon has to step down after his term is Up That’s the way the ball bounces in Corporate Governments …To hell with the little people…it is us us us and screw them …
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