A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
We may be off to a pretty good start.
NHS board chairman Paul Leon should do the honourable thing and resign
When was the last time you remember a member of the NHS’s hand-picked board inviting members of the public to email them with their concerns? So let the new supervisor know you are out there folks by sharing with him the years’ of concerns so many of you have expressed at public meetings, at rallies on the lawns of Queen’s Park and so on, but that the NHS’s insulated and arrogant board never chose to take all that seriously because, in so many words, they knew what they were doing and you didn’t.
At the official announcement this August 31 of Smith’s appointment as NHS supervisor, Paul Leon, the chair of the NHS’s board and one of the top sychophants for health system’s former CEO Debbie Sevenpifer, if there ever was one, claimed to local media that he has no regrets over this all-so-rare decision of the province to take more direct control of a system in crisis. “It’s not about us,” Leon was quoted saying with reference to his board. “It is about the patients.”
In all due respect Chairman Leon, if it was about the patients, you wouldn’t now be drowning in a crisis of public confidence where you have a provincially appointed supervisor essentially taking over your job and the Ontario’s ombudsman breathing down your neck right now.
You could do the honourable thing right now, Mr. Chairman, and resign. Never mind giving us any more crap about the board’s concern for the patients.
At any rate, here is Kevin Smith’s email address. If you have concerns to share, use it – nhssupervisor@gmail.com
(Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views in the comment boxes below.)
Niagara At Large 
We are heavily counting on a “fair & just ” assessment by Kevin Smith to bring sanity to our Health System ! Keeping all things equal it is with some trepidation that this can happen with his ties to the system being what they are.Hopefully this is not just another “cloak & dagger” attempt to fool the people and continue on the path that is in motion now…….. the Ombudsman would be my choice to settle this HUGE problem !! The people will not be put off any longer & will not give up until fairness & justice prevails for ALL!!!!
LikeLike
Well said Ms. Kranics.
I have already sent an e-mail to Dr. Smith regarding concerns our family has with the NHS.
LikeLike
Ontario “reeks” with political patronage “Appointed” Commissions and Boards that grow into “Empires” with absolutely NO concern for the will of the same people they are supposed to work for or with. The NHS, Board and LHIN are examples of arrogance, insensitivity and insolence while ignoring and eroding the Health Care System from within.
Initially the so called NHS consultations were by invitation only with only the chosen few receiving those invites.
The one Consultation that was supposed to be proper was in the busy hallway of the Welland YMCA and even though they were offered a room by staff they refused,.Sue Matthews, Christina Clark and Sevenpifer along with a Board member from the LHIN were present at that so called consultation..
.
In 2002 Only 34 people employed by the NHS made the $100,000 Sunshine List and then it really began to grow….
By 2010 that had reached 189 people and the debt rose throughout the ensuing years as did the administration salaries rubber stamped by an out of touch Board
A Registered Nurse making over $210,000 in 2010 was questioned and the reply was overtime??? A charge Nurse making close to $200,000 and the beat went on Overtime YET Nurses were laid off with the excuse to cut cost?? Check the Sunshine list for the years and see for yourself the Gross Malfeasance committed by the Administration’s self indulgence.
Apparently an American firm was hired to do the Hospital Cleaning laying off Regular and proud Hospital Cleaning staff
This could go on and on for it is truly a sick scenario that defies business ethics as well as a complete lack of rational pertaining to the duties they were suppose to defend.
The Board was/is an old boys/girls club perpetuated by appointed peoples who could be controlled by the chair.
God Help the Peoples of This Southern Region . . .
LikeLike
Question. Will Kevin Smith still be in charge if there is a change in government after the election?
LikeLike
Here, in an old African proverb, is a response to Lawyer Leon’s NHS-related recent newspaper bleating: “Beware the clever man who makes wrong look right.” Should that sort of cynical expectation also apply to Dr Kevin Smith?
LikeLike
Kevin Smith will have the watchdog Andre Marin to contend with and he can be a formidable foe,
Ombudsman site has a complaint form online. Hope you also inform the ombudsman Mr Hood of your problem.
thewatchdog@ombudsman.on.ca
LikeLike
tt’s not just the southern tier, but also anywhere in Niagara if you don’t drive. Perhaps, this new Supervisor Smith can examine how people without vehicles or the capacity to drive them can get from one hospital to another, if they happen to have the wrong condition for their closest hospital with this “centres of excellence” model. I heard people living in Niagara Falls were delaying or cancelling elective surgery that was set for Welland’s hospital because they had no affordable way to get there. Also, under consideration is the right of having family to visit. If your family doesn’t drive, an isolating stay in the hospital can be too much for some patients.
LikeLike
I think this last incident at GNGH and all that has gone on since they closed hospitals moved departments and appointed an interim CEO, (Mathews) should tell you, in no uncertain terms, that it is time to dissolve the NHS and the LHIN post haste.
LikeLike
THIS NEEDS TO BE SHARED
“In general, health care consumers have a right to: receive safe and proper care; have health problems and treatments explained clearly; participate in health care decisions; ask questions and express concerns.”
I finally experienced, for myself, in my opinion, the dark side of the St. Catharines General Hospital. To this point, I have had nothing but praise for its staff, who have wonderfully ministered to our family in the past while been forced to work under worsening conditions, already noted by others.
But for the few, the many would be spared this embarrassing testament. I needed to take a family member in for emergency surgery recently. The patient acknowledges the nursing and doctoring staff, positively, up to a point…but for one unabashed uncaring nurse. Following surgery, a dressing had to be changed. The pain was beyond severe and left a traumatic wailing patient begging for mercy. The nurse in question demeaned the patient and, in my opinion, went beyond reasonable action, and also physically abused the patient by her actions, in-so-far as she openly berated him and dismissed his pleas…making a normal process into a torturous, traumatic, agonizing attack on the injury, and the “self.”
No provision had been made by anyone, for the pain which was known to be a consequence of this particular surgery. For that I fault the doctor for not having left instructions/a prescription for the expected pain, and the nursing team present, for not halting the process until such was provided for.
Both the patient, and I, demanded a stop to the process and the provision of suitable anesthetic to the region being ministered to.
Our family has been left deeply stunned and shaken by these actions, and are seriously considering legal action, and, demands an immediate written apology from those involved. Someone must answer for denying the rights, in law, of the patient, and of being involved in the gross errors in judgment…it was shocking, indignant, indecent and uncaring. Shame on those involved.
LikeLike