Niagara Falls Council condemns hospital superbug secrecy

Niagara Falls city council tore into the Niagara Health System Monday night, passing a resolution expressing outrage with the hospital's handling of its reports of a C. difficile outbreak at the Greater Niagara General Hospital, the Niagara Bullet reports.

The outrage came after the hospital revealed that four people with C. Difficile had also died at the Greater Niagara General site. The deaths occurred between May 12 and June 16, but were not reported until June 23. The report came long after the hospital began reporting an outbreak and deaths at the St. Catharines General site.

A hospital spokesperson, argued, “What needs to be emphasized is that there will always be patients with C. difficile in our hospitals and in our communities. It is not common practice for hospitals to report individual deaths directly to the public.” A hospital vice-president added that the NHS notified the coroner about the four GNGH deaths but not the public until after the outbreak had been declared the night of June 23. "Even though we didn't disclose it publicly, we were disclosing it, informing the coroner."

“With the NHS, more effort is put into hiding the problem than dealing with it. It’s putting lives at risk. It’s unreasonable and unfair. Don’t say there isn’t a problem and let us walk into it blindly,” Mayor Diodatti of Niagara Falls said.

"It's our money and it's our hospital and it's our service and to not tell us the truth about it, that's inexcusable," Diodati said. "That was a blatant disregard for public safety."

OCHU has long argued that the government require hospitals to publicly report superbug deaths in a standardized manner.

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