A Commentary by Doug Draper
Further to the commentary I posted on this site this October 19, involving the reprehensible lack of care for 82-year Doreen Wallace – who fell and writhed in pain on a grate on Niagara Falls, Ontario hospital property before a few at that site finally showed some humanity and helped her -I want to share with you an audio version of a press scrum with Tim Hudak.
Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak
I quoted Tim Hudak in the October 19 piece on this, but it is worth listening to him on tape because a genuine upset and anger come through from this politician who, at the end of the day, is a Niagara resident who also comes across like he is getting the mess the Niagara Health System’s so-called ‘Hospital Improvement Plan’ – more infamously known as the HIP – is causing here in terms of lost services and soaring wait times at what emergency rooms we have left.
Hudak, like NDP leader Andrea Horwath, seem ready to hold the governing Liberal Party’s feet to the fire with respect to the mess the NHS has caused here. That is good because the Liberal government’s front man, this individual they parachuted in a few months back as a new supervisor over the last few months called Dr. Kevin Smith, doesn’t seem to get what Hudak and Horwath get – that the HIP is poison insofar as moving forward with a fair and safe hospital plan for all Niagara residents is concerned. He’s gone on record saying he doesn’t want to discuss the HIP, because that’s the past, and at the end of a recent CKTB town hall, Smith noted that the complaints registered by against the NHS by residents in this region are similar he claims he’s heard about other hospital systems in the province.
If that is so – if other hospital systems across this province have as many problems as we have here, including the larges number (per capita) of C. difficult deaths – then Ontario may have an unparalleled crisis in its hospitals in a country that prides itself on quality, accessible, universal health care for its citizens. If Smith truly buys what is happening here in Niagara with the NHS as “new normal” for Ontario hospital systems, then we’re wasting our time trying to talk to this man. He might just as well go back to his own hospital site– St. Joseph’s in Hamilton –and routinely deal with the next person in their 80s that falls and breaks a limb on St. Joseph’s property, and has to wait for half an hour for help and for an ambulance that is housed in a facility next.
I’d rather go with the words of Ontario’s opposition leader Tim Hudak, who you will also hear in this audio saying the following – “What makes me particularly upset as a Niagara member is that this keeps happening over and over again, with the Niagara Health System,” Hudak said. “That thing needs an overhaul from top to bottom, to stand up for patients. It is absolutely outrageous that in 2011 in the province of Ontario that a senior citizen could be treated in that way.”
Her are Tim Hudak’s words audio, and they sound about as heartfelt as you can get. Please givee them a listen. You can listen in by clicking on http://www.ontariopc.com/media/2011/10/NHS-Press-Conference.mp3
Quite frankly, with this sorry episode, it is time for Dr. Kevin Smith to go home to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, to apparently face the same typical kind of complaints he hears from other hospital systems in the province, while we hopefully have the Ombudsman of Ontario, Andre Marin, come in to do the kind of thorough top-to-bottom investigation of the NHS we so desperately need.
(We encourage you to share your views on this post below. Just remember that this site only posts comments by people who share their real names. If Tim Hudak and the author of this post can reveal their real names, so can you!)
Niagara At Large 
Yet another reason for Occupy Toronto.
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Draper and Hudak are absolutely correct. This outfit needs to be run out of town on a rail starting with the Minister of Health and all the way down to the latest government stooge “Doctor” Smith.
It is sad that this important matter starts off by being tainted by someone who would probably use the lack of a lumber mill to Occupy Stevensville.
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Of course this incident is outrageous, and there have been far too many such incidence in NHS hospitals. However, these serious problems within our hospital system did not arise overnight. Nor can they be fixed in a period of weeks, or even months.
We wanted action on the problems in the NHS. The MOHLTC sent in a highly qualified and responsible Supervisor, who is in the process of finding out for himself how and why our hospital system is broken. Only then will he be in a position to make the changes he deems necessary.
The very least that we can do is to let the man do his job.
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Fiona – This man only wants to talk about the future – according to him we should all forget the past even though we can learn what not to do from the past.
Give me the job and I will fix it in a period of weeks !!!
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THE NHS IS OUT OF IT’S DEPTH IN TREATING PATIENTS. THEY RELY COMPLETELY ON THE PARAMEDICS, WHO MUST BE VERY STRESSED BY THEIR NEW RESPONSIBILITY. THEY ARE NOW TRIAGE UNITS ON WHEELS.
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I guess if you disagree with a “regular contributor” you are muzzled. Nothing like free and open discussion.
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Dear Nick we had a lumber mill here in Stevensville it was set on fire by a volunteer fireman also our Town Hall and the hardware store.that person stole a part of our history. a fantastic planing mill.
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Congratulations for saying the way it really is. As bad as our system is, no one one to admit there is a problem unless they are trying to save their own life or anyone in it.
I am a Canadian nurse living in Toronto and I have volunteered for aid in third world countries being thankful if I ever got sick I would get care here in Canada. I had recently airlifted the first civilian aid to Afghanistan through US State Department and I couldn’t get timely diagnosis and care.
I had a breast lump that took 6 months to get a mammogram, which as negative. I fought to get a second and then it was negative. The irony is that I never thought this was correct and much fighting I got an ultrasound and a biopsy, which confirmed Stage 2 cancer. I left in a week as my husband who is American insisted on a second opinion and within a day I was informed 3 tumours were missed.
I had my surgery the next day, although the surgeons were fully booked I felt they were in shock at my story of delayed treatment and that I was also a health professional. I emailed surgeon at Toronto hospital to inform him of the three missed tumours and to check their machines. I was afraid if there were other women with false negative readings not knowing.
I ended up with a double mastectomy and returned home for chemo.
One promise I made was to change the healthcare system upon recovery. Despite being ongoing to my third year and returning to the Mayo Clinic every 6-8 months while trying to make change it has not been easy.
This April 2011 I sponsored a healthcare forum with 8 hospitals and I brought up here the people who built the Mayo Cancer Clinic and a leading ER specialist, because change starts at the emergency, the gateway to the hospital.
Despite putting out call Pro Bono FREE pilot ER project and having Glenn Murray MP open our day, I have yet to hear from anyone. The Ministry of Long Term Health has proposal and were stumped because we are not looking for funding.
So, I heard of problems in your region and if the citizens are interested in having this project please contact me or if Niagara at Large can be the catalyst. I am tired of calling government officials and hospitals knowing it is the Canadian taxpayers and citizens who are paying for this and should have input. When I returned home, I called George Smitherman’s office (Health Minister) to have them follow up with the false negatives on mammogram machines fearing that other women were affected. Did I ever hear back? No. I even went to Queen’s Park with my surgical drains still intact to speak to someone. No one would bother.
So I decided to make change, I would have to bring resources and experts here.
Life is short and precious and if it was your life or someone you loved waiting is not the answer.
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George I am well aware of the history of the lumber mill, the cider mill and other establishments in Stevensville. I only used that as an example to show that it is not relevant to this hospital issue just like “Occupy Toronto” is not relevant to this hopital issue. I am happy to see an “occupy Toronto” thread has been posted so it will not interfere with NHS discussions.
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