A Commentary by Doug Draper
When the new supervisor the Ontario government is appointing to oversee the Niagara Health System comes on board, one of the first things they ought to do is fire the whole NHS board, beginning with its chairman Paul Leon.
Niagara Health System board chairman Paul Leon
This past August 15, in response to news that the province’s health minister, Deb Matthews, was appointing a supervisor to oversee the NHS, mindless dip-stick number one – Paul Leon, chairman of the health system’s board – began by responding that the board “will work collaboratively with whatever (Matthews) decides.”
That was okay, so far as it went. Then Leon went on, according to a quote in the CBC, to say that a reason for the shake-up of confidence in the NHS, which operates most of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario, is residents who’ve expressed their concerns about the accessibility and quality of those services. “They’ve been using anything they can to advance their agendas, and this has caused a great deal of confusion and concern within our communities.”Oh, really? The “they” this reporter and columnist has mostly been dealing with over the past three or more years are mostly gray-hair ladies from the central and southern tier of Niagara – many of them wearing those yellow shirts for a citizens’ movement called the ‘Yellow Shirt Brigade – who want to keep-acute-care services in their half of the region while their emergency rooms are being shut down and the NHS is building the mega-hospital for Niagara in a ridiculous location in west St. Catharines.
Tell us what agenda they are advancing Chairman Leon. Are they out to make money off of this? Because I have not met one of these people who is profiting off of this. If you can name some, show me the proof and I will post the story.
All I know is that many of these people have families of their own, some with their own health issues, and they have other interests, from gardening to reading books and so on, that they have given up. And why? Because they seem to be genuinely concerned about what they see as the diminishing quality of hospital services in their communities, that’s why.
So maybe the tables should be turned and we should be asking you what your agenda is Chairman Leon. You’ve been on that board, sitting on and off as its chairman for most of the past 10 years.
What was your agenda when you agreed to locate the only new hospital complex for which Niagara is likely to receive provincial funding for decades to come in west St. Catharines, where speculators have been flipping lands around it like hot dogs, instead of placing it in a more central location in the region?
What was your agenda when former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer, who you praised almost right up to the time she was bounced out of there this past winter, went around telling city and town councils their community based hospitals would remain fully functional, even while the NHS’s board and administration were preparing a so-called ‘hospital improvement plan’ aimed at transferring a critical mass of the region’s critical care services to the west St. Catharines site?
Whose agenda is benefiting the most from that west St. Catharines hospital site, Chairman Leon? Can you tell us that? Because it certainly isn’t the people who live in Niagara Falls or Welland, or Fort Erie, Port Colborne or Wainfleet, where our regional government is hoping more of the population growth is going in the decades to come. They are contributing a good chunk of their tax money to widen the roads and for all the other infrastructure to accommodate this mammoth new hospital complex at a site that is not fairly accessible for them.
Can you please enlighten us on the agendas that caused your NHS board to site the new hospital complex here? I’m just willing to bet not.
One of the first things any new supervisor appointed by the province to oversee the NHS should do, if the province is sincere about restoring public confidence in this health care system, is bounce Leon and company out of that board and elect some people Niagara residents can trust.
(Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views in the comment boxes below on this story. Please remember that we only post views from readers willing to share their names.)
Niagara At Large 
The Members of the Board of Trustees of the NHS who have been supportive of the current Administrative actions should not have to be bounced as suggested.
People with any integrity would immediately submit resignations.
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I’m sure Mr. Leon’s really a very sweet man with the best interests of all of us opportunistic, agenda-ridden, divisive peasants at heart. I’d vote for him again. Oh wait—he’s not elected. Silly me.
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Great article Doug .
Thank you so much Doug for this article and speaking out for all of the people fighting hard for equal accessible healthcare for all.
It has never been as clear as it is now, that our whole healthcare fiasco is about money and not about people. It is about self-esteem and pensions for those in power.
How many times do we hear “I have to hang in there for another term for my pension”? We will likely never know the amount of severance pay has been given out to those who have been let go in the upper ranks, but all of that ill-spent money would have gone a long way with patient care.
How did it come about, that hospital CEOs with a business or financial degree, can over-ride physicians when it comes to treatment, including medications, to be administered to patients? How can the exorbitant wages paid to upper management be justified, and then get severance pay when they are no longer employees?
Yes! I am one of the grey haired ladies that wear a yellow shirt with a big black NO on the front. I wear it proudly and openly and will continue to do so, as will all the others who are willing to step up and fight to get health care back to Niagara, and to fight for those who cannot fight or speak out for themselves.
We also fight for those who are too immature to realize that all these cuts to beds and services, not only in Fort Erie and Port Colborne but as we can already see, have also now hit Welland and Niagara Falls. Perhaps you have been fortunate enough that your family has not been touched by illness, accident or death but think ahead – will there be hospitals, beds or services should the situation change? We are trying hard to make sure they will be there for you.
That is the day that you will suddenly see what is happening, and if you don’t fight now, it will be too late.
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Well said – I cannot add to that – cut the head off the monster
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Paul, watch out for those gray-haired ladies, Sue and Joy. They’ll skewer you for sure. You think you encounter toughness in your commercial ventures?
They have no lives and all day they just plot and plan how to profit from the hospital system – NOT! Too bad a few more grey (brown, blond) hairs aren’t as active and altruistic as them. Considering what they have accomplished and publicity for the cause they have gained, against all odds and roadblocks, the Yellow Shirts deserve the respect and thanks of all citizens of Niagara. If all the populace was as learned and devoted in all things as these ladies and gentlemen, we would have a true democracy again instead of being dumped on perpetually.
We taxpayers should be running the show, not a bunch of privileged, wealthy business people who have no clue how, as Terry puts it, the peasants live.
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I think the “agenda” to which Mr. Leon and his ilk refers is a fallacious belief that there is a NDP backed movement in the Yellow Shirt Brigade and the Niagara Health Coalition. While there may be some truth to that inasmuch as few members are NDP supporters, many are not. The opposition to the NHS has developed as a legitimate grassroots movement standing up against this unaccountable, oligarchy.
We are angry and frustrated citizens of Niagara who feel we have been let down on every level by the NHS, the province, the Regional government and to a certain extent our local municipalities. I’m a Conservative by inclination but politics takes a major backseat to my humanity. Many people who I’ve corresponded with or talked have to have developed a common concern that the NHS et al have let us down regardless of their political persuasion.
That’s the real agenda here – doing what’s right for your family and community.
Good, hard hitting article Doug
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Boy am I ever glad when my my wife had a serious heart attack that just by luck the doctor on call at the Port Colborne Hospital was her doctor, who looked after her for seven hours because they could not free up an ambulance. Maybe Mr Big Shot would like to comment on this situation because I could comment to him on another situation.
All the same, the Welland hospital did take good care of of my wife and she received excellent and caring treatment.
Bill Augustine,
Port Colborne
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When will we be able to elect politicians who listen to the people that know their surroundings better than the elected ones who can live off us on our hard earned dollars.(I could ask an Eskimo for advice in Port Colborne and probably be listened to better than the ones elected at our expense). I am surprised that these so called experts cannot draw a circle and put a dot in the center. Do the high paid salary people(executives) on the appointed Boards use any common sense when it comes to the Health System? You really said it right Mr Draper
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With all the problems the NHS has, these comments (by the NHS chairman) are totally inappropriate. Thanks for picking up on this Doug. At least now we all have proof that the head that the NHS is in a state of denial. Seems reminiscent of the great Tony Hayward.
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While this piece is a strong outcry against the medical oligarchs who have assumed management of the health needs of the community, in all fairness they are only a symptom. Mr Leon needs no defence from me. He is quite capable of defending his own actions. There is a much bigger systemic issue at play.
There was a time when the medical community was directly accountable to the patient. Doctors made house calls and people were not reluctant to share their most intimate issues with the practitioner. The doctor was answerable to the patient because the patient paid the doctor directly, and in small rural communities often with produce or bartered services. The bond of trust was strong.
Things have changed.
• Privileged conversations become part of a monolithic data base.
• Doctors are reluctant, in some cases fearful, to speak freely with their patients.
• Patients with multiple issues are told to make a separate appointment for each matter.
• Patients from one area are turned away from the hospital emergency door if they seek help in a different district, all in the name of statistical parity.
• Doctors have lost their autonomy and are now part of a chain of command.
• The nursing profession is being turned into a McJob.
• Cleaning staff are being sued for speaking out about cut-backs in staff sizes. (West Nipissing Hospital – Sturgeon Falls)
• Diagnostic solutions are no longer negotiated between doctor and patient, but come from unitized price book of permitted services.
• Lengthy waiting lists prove the existence of rationing.
Adding insult to injury, these frontline heroes are being slandered as being the cause of cost overruns and the conditions faced by patients.
What we have lost sight of is the fact that the medical profession no longer serves the patient. It serves the government.
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We have many concerns and issues with our health system and I believe that instead of harping and harping on the problems (I say this because it only falls on deaf ears as far as our Gov is concerned) It is time to form a board or committee to initiate a plan of action to help solve our problems with the N.H.S.
I would appreciate comments. WE NEED ACTION (IDEAS) NOT COMPLAINTS.
p.s. I WOULD ALSO VOLUNTEER
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You couldnt be more correct
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