A Commentary by Doug Draper
The St. Catharines radio station CKTB ran a headline on its online site this October 19 that runs like one of those headlines Jay Leno or David Letterman would make fun of on their late night shows.
Doreen Wallace - another victim of Niagara Health System mismanagement. How many more!
Except there is absolutely nothing funny about this one which reads as follow – ‘CKTB EXCLUSIVE: NHS memo demands all staff help people in distress on hospital property’
Isn’t that nice?The Niagara Health System – a body responsible for operating most of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario and responsible for spending hundreds of millions of our tax dollars a year – is going to finally demand that its staff help people in distress on hospital property. Shouldn’t that be a given?
Apparently not. Just go ask 82-year-old Doreen Wallace, who went to the Niagara Health System hospital site in Niagara Falls, Ontario earlier this October to visit a loved one, and who slipped and broke a limb on the hospital property. She might just as well have entered the Twilight Zone or tripped through Alice in Wonderland’s “looking glass” than found herself in distress at one of the Niagara Health System’s hospital sites.
Sprawled out and laying in pain as she was on a grate on the hospital property for some 30 minutes before she got help, some of the morons at the Niagara Falls hospital site, now being supervised by Dr. Kevin Smith (the provincial Liberal government’s handpicked patsy for guiding along hospital systems in trouble) apparently insisted that the only thing to do was to call 911.
Call 911? For what? An ambulance? She was already at a hospital, for God sake! What does someone who has sworn any kind of oath to help people in distress have to do to intervene on behalf of an elderly person on hospital property? But never mind codes of ethics when it comes to looking after patients at the NHS. This is not the first time someone has been left waiting for an ambulance on hospital property.
Earlier this year there was the case of a city councillor for Niagara Falls was in distress in the same hospital’s parking lot. That outrageous incident received quite a bit of publicity, but some idiots never learn. At the NHS, the rule seems to be, even under the supervision of this new guy Smith, if someone is in distress on hospital property, call 911 for an ambulance, and maybe it will show up on time.
But overall, this is bloody nuts and the province’s Conservative leader Tim Hudak said it right when he learned of the incident.
“We’re in frigging Ontario,” said Hudak to reporters this October 19. “This is the way we’re going to treat a senior citizen? That’s wrong. They have to clean up that mess at the Niagara Health System and we’ll make sure they do.”
“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.”
Hudak’s right, and it’s too bad he wasn’t as passionate as that during the election. The NHS sure does need an overhaul. And it needs to be fully investigated by the province’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin, right now!
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
Other than the inhumanity to the poor woman, the other outrageous event was a local ambulance could not respond as they were all lined up at the ER door at the back of GNGH and paramedics could not leave their patients as the ER was too busy to take care of them….and an ambulance had to be brought from out of town. This is like a Peter Sellers movie….but not funny. Since the ER cuts in Port Colborne and Fort Erie paramedic offload wait times are legendary. Last year they reported soaring offload wait times. Since then they have been muzzled.
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Uh-frigging-believable. Maybe we should all go down there and protest the hospital, and get it on the cover of every newspaper for all to see. A little embarrassment could go a long way…
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This is one of the few families willing to go public with their experience.There are so many more horrendous stories and we can only hope Smith and Flynn and the Ombudsman are getting am earful.
Another very sad aspect to the story is the ambulance situation. Why 28 minutes to get an ambulance from the EMS station which is right NEXT DOOR to the Hospital? The available ambulances were already at the Hospital parked outside the ER with patients on board patiently waiting their turn to off-load into the overcrowded ER. A back up bus had to be called from St.Catharines.
This situation can be directly attributed to the Hospital Improvement Plan that closed two Southern Tier Hospitals and this same HIP Smith has stated he doesn’t want to discuss.
Message to Mr Smith,,,It is about The HIP – The HIP – The HIP!
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Thanks Ontario voters for your stupidity the last time you were at the voting station — DUMMIES
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Bravo, Doug. Another fine piece of journalistic reporting! But one wonders whether a business-run hospital corporation is capable of learning what’s morally right or wrong, let alone applying the finer nuances of the Hippocratic oath? They WILL keep on messing up at NHS until the system is back in the hands of nurses & proper doctors. I’m biased on this point.
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CKTB is owned by a huge company, Astral Media, based in Quebec, I believe, and is similar to Sun Media, or QMI, and there is always going to be one-sided ‘reporting’ from either of these outlets. A ilttle off-topic, but there you go.
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NHS Supervisor “Dr” Smith is a businessman and a government apologist in disguise. He is also an academic philosopher; one therefore must presume that he is versed in situational ethics. But that kind of ethics is neither enough nor necessarily right. He is NOT a proper doctor. He is not sworn to the age-old Hippocratic Oath. Ipso facto, he’s not equipped to dispense proper medical ethical advice to NHS’s non-medical – or medical-surgical – staff. Until the NHS ‘sites’ again become proper hospitals run by caring nurses and proper doctors there will continue to be frightful mess-ups similar to what happened to the 82 year old lady in Niagara Falls. As an MD (retired) I am proudly biased on this latter point. Does ANYONE agree?
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Until the so-called HIP is subjected to critical scrutiny, a ‘diagnosis’ for NHS’s nefarious foibles cannot be made. Until then, no proper ‘remedy’ can be rationally applied. Is a non-medical supervisor such as ‘doctor’ Smith (a slightly more sophisticated lay-administrator from the same cookie-cutter mould that produced Debbie Seven-pip) qualified to assess (he rejects this need) and ‘treat’ NHS? Methinks not.
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As I recall, the reason for getting paramedics for such in hospital occurences was due to injuries to staff caused by lifting people. This also applied to families bringing people by car if they were unable to get them into the hospital from the vehicle. That being said, I often disobeyed this rule myself because you cannot leave somebody lying on the floor or leave someone in a car if they are having a heart attack where time is of the essence. I could understand waiting for a couple of burly paramedics to help if someone has a broken foot which is uncomfortable but not life threatening and they weigh 450 lbs.and cannot heft themselves out of the car. That is a whole different kettle of fish however.
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PS. The Review said, according to Smith, that a “Code Blue” should have been called for this woman. WRONG!!! Code Blue is for a cardiac arrest ONLY & both ICU and ER staff would come running with all kinds of unnecessary drugs and equipment. This could divert them from a true emergency and deplete the staff in their own areas. That makes me wonder about his knowledge and common sense to abuse a priority call.
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Occupy Toronto ! All of this nonsense relates to insufficient public monies in the face of corporate greed. The government’s priorities are and have been misplaced for too long. We need to support the people at St. James Park
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Hold the fort!
Where in the world do you get the information from. Ever think that some time a little research may be essential. EMS received the call and was on site in 8, yes 8 minutes… The key thing to look at is how and why there was a delay to the call for help, as well as reviewing the event itself and determining the proper response.
Don’t get carried away folks, with stories of emotion and fiction.
EMS when called, was there promptly and within or under the expected time..
Gary Hass
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This ongoing incompetance and none action is an outrage, in a so called civilized society,If Tim Hudak had, had more passion on the hustings the outlook might have changed at Queens Park, then the NHS would be held accountable for this horrific mess. The Yellow Shirts will not let up their demand for justice in Niagara. I support the Yellow Shirts.!!!!
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