Niagara Health System Only Has To ‘Open Its Mouth’ To Inspire Distrust

By Pat Scholfield

Is there any wonder people do not believe the Niagara Health System?

On Friday I went online to read The Welland Tribune. There was an article reading; “Little change in updated D.difficile case numbers”.

As I read through the short report, the NHS (the body responsible for operating most of Niagara, Ontario’s hospital services) stated an increase of three cases at Welland. “Really,” I said to myself. “This does not sound like little change. It sounds like an increase!”
I also was aware when the NHS declared recently Welland no longer had a C.difficile outbreak, that they had just sent one infected patient to Port Colborne. Once again, I said to myself; “That’s a great way to reduce an outbreak. Just ship the infected patients elsewhere. Once the outbreak status has been removed, they then can move this highly infected patient back to Welland. That is more than clever. It is diabolical. “Surely the NHS would not do that,” I think to myself. “Would they?

Highly concerned, I called one of the editors and lodged a request to check out this story, which they were already looking into. Following that was the next headline which read; “C.diff numbers rise in Welland”.

In this article, the NHS admits to an increase of four in-patient cases, one patient transfer from Port Colborne, one relapsing in-hospital case and three community-acquired cases. Just between you and me, that sounds like an additional five cases, but I’m not a great mathematician and  I don’t want to embarrass the NHS.

Actually, I don’t have to. They embarrass themselves. As you read further, revealed is the most convoluted, contrived explanation of why these additional cases at Welland do not warrant an outbreak to be declared.

It’s a “complicated calculation”, Dr. Hope, NHS acting chief of staff says, “which involves deviations from the baseline number over time.” Hospitals have to use an algorithm that takes into account the number of beds, patients and the usual number of hospital-acquired infections the facility deals with. If I didn’t know better, I might think the NHS administrators in charge must be brilliant to calculate this equation accurately.

Now to move away from the sarcasm, I have some hard questions for the NHS. It would be nice to get an honest answer.

Why is the NHS transferring C.difficile infected patients from one hospital to another and back? Particularly why would the NHS transfer patients with C.difficile to hospitals at Port Colborne or Fort Erie where they house only complex care patients, who are generally elderly with multiple health issues and who are the most vulnerable to catch this deadly disease and die? Also, is the vehicle the infected patient is transferred in thoroughly cleaned and sanitized afterward?  If not, why not?

As I said at the start, no wonder people do not believe the NHS. Every time they open their mouth, they prove they are not to be trusted.

Pat Scholfield is a south Niagara resident and a longtime citizen advocate for quality, accessible hospital services for all Niagara residents.

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