Port Colborne, Ontario Mayor Uses Report To Council To Talk Up Health Care For South Niagara

(Niagara At Large is posting the entire report Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey delivered to the city’s council this January 30 for our readers’ interest.)

 Moving forward with vision…. A Report to Council by Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

“In response to (Niagara Health System supervisor) Dr. Kevin Smith’s comments made public recently, in my opinion, he validates the direction the City of Port Colborne has taken throughout the past few years….a new vision and who better to create this vision than those leaders from across the Region – community and medical leaders, along with members of our community.

Through a process of consultation with community health care service providers, enablers and members of our community, we have developed and presented to Dr. Smith and the province a clinical services plan for South Niagara as a response to the changes proposed to be introduced to our health care system. 

It is essential to the future of health care in our community, and neighbouring communities that the process continues forward to enhance community based primary health care services and provide consistent advocacy for enhanced and advanced acute health care services.

Therefore, we agree, and I quote from Dr. Smith, that “it would make sense to retain one of the current hospitals and use it to help alleviate the alternative level of care problems that have plagued emergency departments for the past several years. Are any of those sites, particularly the smaller ones, a place where we might build a better environment … for a primary care/ urgent care interface.” We are already accomplishing this!!

 Current initiatives with various partners within our community include the Inter-professional Care (IPC)pilot project to ensure all citizens of Port Colborne who have a family physician in Port Colborne have access to a Virtual Family Health Team for a basket of services. As well, we have begun a health literacy campaign to educate the public about the importance of taking ownership in an understandable manner of their own health care. Therefore, we already have the blueprint to alleviate the alternative level of care problems that have plagued emergency departments.

We need to ensure that we are “intellectually consistent” with the way we do business – certifying a more efficient system while providing equitable access to health care services.

Another example of this is what we have brought together here in the City of Port Colborne (South Niagara) and are prepared to extend it to our neighbours in South Niagara through a new governance modal – a Clinical Services Plan that includes an alignment of community based primary health care and acute health care services. An example of this is with the introduction of Family Health Teams (FHT) and Community Health Centres (CHC) in our areas. In Port Colborne alone, we have recognized that 18% less patients are utilizing the ER/UCC throughout the system because enhanced services are available to them through community based primary health care, especially allied health care of which is required in some cases. Therefore, its working!!

However, we are being suppressed in terms of rolling out the entire strategy. We don’t even have a funding modal in place for our local physicians. IT’S TIME SOMEONE TAKES THE BULL BY THE HORNS AND DEALS WITH IT!! It seems Dr. Smith is prepared to work with us to do just that.

Once again, our  intent is NOT to be confrontational, it is simply to get the job done by being a part of the overall solution for the delivery of health care services!!!

We are a unique region, with a population that needs a range of healthcare options. We have been establishing solutions to these needs from within the LHIN’s mandates since 2009. It is refreshing that Dr. Smith is listening to what we have been saying and what we are doing. We are all in this together!!

With respect to the McMaster University report from Dr. Terry Flynn, on NHS Trust and Reputation, although the report validates a strong dissatisfaction with the Niagara Health System by Niagara residents, the City of Port Colborne actually scored well, and we believe this is because of the tremendous efforts on community education we have embarked on since the introduction of the HIP.  Although we are strong opponents of the HIP, we have diligently reacted in a manner that brought forward solutions to what we disagreed with. Another example is the recruitment of many allied health care professionals to our community to improve the level of community based primary health care by enabling the patient to gain immediate access to the right care, at the right time, from the right professional.

Bottom line, the City of Port Colborne has established and created a front door to Community based primary health care. This has created continuity, strengthening the very health care services our residents seek on a daily basis.

An opportunity exists here to collaborate further; for the MOHLTC to get on board with this exciting initiative, and to truly make a fiscally responsible effort in improving health care in small communities such as Port Colborne.  However, we need a financial commitment for this to continue. 

In the Globe and Mail Tuesday, November 8, 2011, an article by Andre Picard clearly illustrates and supports what we are already doing, and I quote,  “With Primary Care, the opportunity for reform lies in actually doing things differently, and ensuring that patients have access to the right care, at the right time, from the right professional.”

We are becoming a population that understands the importance of preventive medicine, and we are learning to manage our chronic diseases, hence the many capital investments we have been making within our community, as well as, our efforts to enhance primary care. 

We have more primary care providers and therefore, services than we have ever had, and now we need to look at state of the art pathways for our acute care needs, hence a new state of the art hospital for south Niagara.

As we look at these options and the need for better in hospital care with the least number of in hospital days of care, a solution is a new hospital for south Niagara similar to the one being built in north St. Catharines. We are thrilled to be part of the decision making team integrated with our medical faculty and members of respective communities to move forward with a vision that will benefit future generations.

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