Skip to content

Local elected officials voice concern over fate of Welland Hospital

New Niagara Health strategic plan calls for two acute care hospitals and one ambulatory site, a reduction from the current five medical facilities in the region
welland-hospital-sign-oct-2022
Welland Hospital.

Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch and Welland Mayor Frank Campion are deeply concerned that the new five-year strategic plan released by the Niagara Health System (NHS) reduces the Welland Hospital from a full-service medical facility to one providing only ambulatory care.

The current system includes five medical facilities with full-service hospitals in Welland, Niagara Falls, and St. Catharines, while sites in Port Colborne and Fort Erie offer urgent and ambulatory care.

Niagara Health posted a document on its website last week outlining the objectives of its 2023-2028 strategic plan, which included the statement that, “by 2028, Niagara Health will…fully transition to a regional model with two acute care sites, including the opening of the new South Niagara Site hospital, and one ambulatory care site.”

The St. Catharines Hospital would be the other acute care and full-service site. Urgent care centres in Port Colborne and Fort Erie are slated for closure after the new hospital in Niagara Falls opens.

In 2012, a report by then-Niagara Health hospital supervisor Kevin Smith recommended closing the Welland Hospital entirely, along with the Port Colborne and Fort Erie sites.

Burch and Campion, in a joint public letter to Niagara Health president and chief executive officer Lynn Guerriero, wrote that they oppose the downgrading of the Welland site, noting that a motion calling for the continuation of services at the hospital received unanimous support in the provincial legislature last April. They have asked for an immediate meeting with hospital officials and board representatives to discuss the situation.

“Make no mistake, your proposed changes, if implemented, will almost certainly result in the avoidable deaths of people in our community,” wrote Burch and Campion. “It is abhorrent to think that such drastic changes could go forward at all, much less without community consultation or clear communication and discussion with locally elected officials.”

The NHS strategic plan includes such objectives as enhancing patient care for seniors and Indigenous people, greater use of technology and data, and a priority on creating an inclusive and collaborative workplace with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Creation of the strategic plan included the collection of data from 1000 Niagara residents through focus groups, one-on-one interviews, more than 600 surveys, drop-in sessions, round-table conversations, and leadership meetings, according to NHS.

An additional concern focuses on Emergency Medical Service (EMS) provided by Niagara paramedics, who are experiencing an unprecedented ambulance offload delay, which is expected only to get worse.

Niagara West MPP Oosterhoff was asked by PelhamToday for comment on NHS’ 2023-2028 Strategic Plan.

“Since 2018, our government has invested over $19.5 million towards planning the new South Niagara Hospital site in Niagara Falls,” wrote Oosterhoff in an email. “Once completed, the new hospital in Niagara Falls will consolidate and expand acute care services, replacing outdated infrastructure with high-tech facilities and supporting better, connected care in the region. Additionally, to meet growing demand in the region, the new hospital is planned to have 159 more beds than the combined total number of beds at the current sites of Niagara Health in Port Colborne, Fort Erie, and Niagara Falls. Niagara Health will continue to operate the existing facility in St. Catharines, which was opened in 2013, along with the Welland campus.

"Once the new hospital in Niagara Falls is completed, the Welland campus will retain 30 complex care beds and offer a new model of 24/7 emergency services, while continuing to deliver diagnostic services like x-ray, ultrasound, CT, lab services, and diagnostic cardiac ultrasound. Our government is proud to be investing more than $40 billion over the next ten years in hospital infrastructure across the province, and we continue to support Niagara Health’s master plan for the development of a new state-of-the-art hospital for patients and families in Niagara as part of our plan to build a better connected, more convenient health care system for all Ontarians.”

Niagara Health’s 2023-2028 strategic plan is available online.

 


Reader Feedback

Don Rickers

About the Author: Don Rickers

A life-long Niagara resident, Don Rickers worked for 35 years in university and private school education. He segued into journalism in his retirement with the Voice of Pelham, and now PelhamToday
Read more