“With a significant primary care shortage, and lack of access to emergency hospital services, Niagara-on-the-Lake needs the (Ontario Ford Government and its Health) Ministry to follow through on their promise for nurse practitioner services.”
News from the Constituency Office of Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates
Posted October 12th, 2023 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates, whose riding also includes Niagara-on-the-Lake and Fort Erie
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario – NDP MPP Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls Riding) joined Niagara-on-the-Lake Mayor, Gary Zalepa, to call for increased nurse practitioner services for Niagara-on-the-Lake with a joint letter released this October 12th, 2023.
“Seniors in our community deserve access to health care that is publicly available and easily accessible,” said Gates. “As a popular tourist destination and place to retire, additional nurse practitioner services for Niagara-on-the-Lake are critical to help ensure everyone who lives, works or visits the community will have access to the care they need.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake has a high population of senior residents, with approximately 36.2 per cent of the Town’s population 65 years and over.
MPP Gates and Mayor Zalepa penned a joint letter to Ford’s Health Minister calling for a nurse practitioner to serve the community.
In July 2022, Jones’ Ministry confirmed that they supported a nurse practitioner for the Town, and there was funding available.
“With a significant primary care shortage, and lack of access to emergency hospital services, Niagara-on-the-Lake needs the Ministry to follow through on their promise for nurse practitioner services,” said Gates.
“Recently, seniors in the community have been forced to travel long distances to different municipalities to get the care they needed. A nurse practitioner position, available to all residents as a walk-in service, is essential to assist these individuals in their time of need.”
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Niagara At Large 
Ever wonder why the Ford government never spends all the money it allocated for health care? There are a lot of announcements and re-announcements but the money never flows to its destination. Communities are given assurances that there is money for in this case the hiring of a nurse practitioner. Until they have it in hand, they can’t move forward. The residents all feel the impact. So why is it taking Ford 15 months to send a cheque? Nurse practitioners are super important especially in those communities that have no hospitals and a high percentage of their residents don’t have a family doctor. NOTL also has a high percentage of seniors- AS the crow flies, the hospitals in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines are close. Travelling there is another matter. You face huge congestion during the tourist season from April to November just to get to the QEW. The escarpement and the Welland Canal limit the road access and it takes longer to travel . Add to this,the two hospitals are running well over 120 percent capacity and have huge wait times in their emergency rooms. The reduction in the hours of surgical times by Niagara Health at the Welland hospital aggravates the wait times in the other two hospitals. It is very unfortunate that Niagara Health more than 2 decades ago in its zealous quest to close all small local hospitals in Niagara closed the NOTL hospital. A facility which offered great services for its residents and doctors were attracted to the community because of it. That decision impacted and still does all the residents of NOTL. We do have a serious health crisis in Ontario. It is found in all areas – primary care, long term care, hospitals, mental health to name a few. Even though the government has acknowledged the crisis and made numerous announcements re solutions- they are not following through on simple steps such as sending a cheque to fund a nurse practitioner in NOTL . It’s just not getting done!
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In 2007, one of the reasons we moved here was that there was a hospital. Today,Fort Erie has a “Mickey Mouse” public health system. It is so bad that one has to schedule an URGENT CARE need because the so called Public Urgent Care closes its doors at 8:00PM so it can close at 10:00PM.
In the planning stages for St. Catharines new hospital the response to my question “Will this new hospital close the surrounding hospitals?” the response was “No, we do not have enough beds in the new hospital….”. We now know that the representatives for the new St. Catharines Hospital were not honest in their response. Today, the NHS announces that the new Niagara Falls South Hospital (not Niagara South) will cause a further reduction in public health care to the residents of South Niagara including Fort Erie, Port Colborne.
Like the St. Catharine Hospital the Niagara Falls South Hospital is built in the suburb, outside the core area of the community. As a result it is/will be an inconvenience not only for the people of South Niagara but also for people in north Niagara Falls.
NHS should be funding public services to the people of the Niagara Region, not increase its bureaucratic staff. Premier Ford should be directing NHS to fund public health care not private health clinics.
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