News from Sue Hotte, member of the citizen-based Niagara Health Coalition
Get on the bus -Save Welland Hospital Campaign kick off with mass rally, November. 21st at Queen’s Park
The Save Welland Hospital Campaign is off and running. Its first major action is sending a busload to Queen’s Park, Friday, November 21 to tell the province that Welland residents will not stand for the closure of their hospital.
The Welland Hospital site in Niagara, Ontario is about the only facility approximating a fully functioning hospital for south Niagara residents in the Welland, Port Colborne, Wainfleet and Fort Erie areas. file photo by Doug Draper
“Ontario’s government is forging ahead with the most aggressive plan ever to systematically strip local community hospitals of services and cut or privatize them,” Natalie Mehr, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition told more than 100 people who packed City Hall last week to find out how they can organize to save their hospital.
By joining thousands of citizens gathering at the Ontario Legislature, this kick-off event of the campaign will energize local residents for the work ahead to save the Welland hospital from the province’s planned closure.
“Hospital closures are not for the public good and community needs but for political expediency. Now is our time to rally in support of the Welland Hospital,” said Niagara Health Coalition co-chair Sue Hotte. “We have to start now.”
The Coalition has organized a coach bus with washroom facilities to make the trip to Toronto. A sign- up sheet will be available this Saturday at the Welland Market to book a space on the bus. Residents can also contact Sue Hotte at 905-932-1646 or email suehotte@yahoo.ca
In fourteen years with the Ontario Health Coalition, Mehra told the public meeting last week she has never seen an area where the cuts are as severe as those proposed for Niagara. The Welland Hospital serves 51,000 city residents. Including the catchment areas of Port Colborne, Fort Erie, Pelham and Wainfleet, close to 100,000 people rely on the Welland Hospital. “Nowhere in this country are they closing hospitals in towns of 50,000 people. It’s unheard of. It’s completely unacceptable,” Mehra said.
Mehra is confident a mass rally of residents from communities across Ontario faced with closure of their local hospitals will alert Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to the necessity of revising plans for the future of hospital services in Welland and across the province.
The coach bus will leave the Welland Market, Friday, Nov. 21 at 9 a.m. sharp arriving at Queen’s Park for the noon rally. Buses will leave Toronto at 2:30 p.m. returning to the Welland Market.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views below.)
Niagara At Large 
Is the attempt to close Welland really a shock? This has been coming for years. Slash & burn for private interests & profit.
Soon Canada will be like the US where health INSURANCE replaces health CARE! All part of the “Harper government” master plan to privatize everything for profit & the citizens be damned. (Ever notice it’s the “Harper” government, not the Conservative or Canadian government?) All party members must toe the line. Sounds like Putinism.
Fort Erie, Port Colborne, now Welland. Similar closures throughout Ontario, Cambridge, Stratford, etc. Nobody cares until it effects them, then suddenly it’s a crisis. I don’t remember many Wellanders or St Catharines or NF folks rushing to save Fort Erie or Port Colborne. (There were a devoted few like Fionna, John D & Dr T Abraham). Thank you! My cousins in St Catharines didn’t even KNOW about our plight. Ssshhh! Keep it under the radar. Fort Erie Hospital may as well be a warehouse. Empty halls, empty rooms, empty departments.
Now we have a plush facility as far from the population centre as possible in St Catharines but it doesn’t even have enough parking for its own employees & not enough beds to replace those closed. Services keep moving farther & farther away. Yeah, there will be a new hospital in Niagara. Like I will live to see it.
Very strange that Ontario dumped Hudak for reasons such as privatization & service cuts yet federally somebody voted for the same big business agenda. Of course cities like Toronto where the dollar carries the day will vote for business interests. They outnumber us. Why do they care? They have the best hospitals in the country at their doorsteps & will continue to have so long as that gets votes.
Natalie is fighting for us. Too bad so few of us are fighting for ourselves.
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Too little and away too too too late….The “only” real politician in the Council of the City of Welland who opened his mouth in the past was Frank Campion. Goulborne, the ex mayor was playing politics with the Board Chair Souter, (former Niagara Health System president and CEO) Debbie Sevenpifer and the Regional Councilors from St Catharines in an attempt to gain the Regional Chair.
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