(Niagara At Large is posting the full text of an address Sue Salzer,
This rally is the culmination of a long three year fight for justice.
The advent of the Hospital Improvement Plan was the start of a nightmare spiral down to the pits of Health Care we are seeing today.)
The NHS spin would have you believe that the HIP would provide improved health services to all of Niagara and I am here to say it was always about the almighty dollar. Attend an NHS Board meeting or a LHIN meeting.
Citizen health care advocate Sue Salzer speaks at rally.
They are more interested in meeting a bottom line and covering their bottom ends then they are in ensuring top flight health care that we are demanding here today.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense including Joe the Plumber could see the closure of so many existing services would be a recipe for disaster.
You cannot close the medical beds operating rooms and emergency rooms of two communities without serious consequences. 50.000 residents from the Southern Tier have crowded your emergency room, forced cancellation of surgeries and lined up ambulances because of extreme bed shortages.
The Health Minister (Liberal Health Minister Deb Matthews) was told over and over that Niagara was an accident waiting to happen. The pleas of our politicians fell on deaf ears as she maintained full confidence in the NHS. She stands alone today with that confidence.
We mourn with the families who have lost their loved ones. We pray with the families who are wondering if they will be the next NHS statistic.
C. difficile, MERSA and VRS in this Hospital brings us together to tell the NHS we have had enough,,,no indeed we will tell them we have had too much and been ignored too often.Our Hospitals have become Houses of pestilance.
Before the NHS closes Maternity and Pediatrics in Welland and before they close Maternity here in Niagara Falls, join what the Yellow Shirt Brigade has been saying since day one – No to Hospital Closures. No to more bed closures and staff layoffs. No to paper pushers and united we can send the message,,,Raise your voices with me and just say NO!
Sue Salzer is a resident of Fort Erie, Ontario and an advocate for fair, assessable and quality health care services for all Niagara residents.
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