Skip to main content

Might Niagara Supervisor get more bucks and a better plan for hospital?

The newly appointed Supervisor of the Niagara Health System hospital, Kevin Smith, told Niagara This Week that "nothing is off the table" including taking a hard look at hospital restructuring. Smith says his focus is on rebuilding trust and that the location of clinical services and loss of trust in the community are two of the biggest issues he must address.

The existing NHS hospital improvement plan called for a major changes in hospital services across the region, including the shut down of emergency departments in two local hospital sites and the closure of the maternity and pediatric wards in Welland and Niagara Falls.

The NHS has always refused to revise the restructuring plan and has stuck pretty closely to the government -- but Smith may be able to get some new cash and improve local services. After appointing a supervisor to run the hospital, the government will be forced to take more responsibility for securing an outcome acceptable to local communities. And that gives Smith (and Niagara) some leverage.

But how this might play out with the elections remains unclear. Smith, after all, was appointed by a Liberal government.

Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2011 at 3:58 PM

    My biggest concern is: Even if the NHS gets more funding, and they got over $25 million this past year, it will all go to the new hospital in west St. Catharines.

    My biggest complaint is: No matter what the funding or human resources; or lack thereof......that is no acceptable excuse to remove all acute and emergency hospital services from the southern tier of Niagara and move them to north Niagara, where the people of the south do not have timely and equitable access to these necessary services.

    Pat

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2011 at 4:08 PM

    They shut down two ER's and people say so what. They shut down ERs, operating rooms and all medical beds in effect converting the former H buildings into old age homes and left two communities without a Hospital. They left us the coffee shops too!

    Sue

    ReplyDelete
  3. FionaSeptember 5, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    The underlying problem is governance. Without a full investigation of the operations of the NHS and its Board, going back to the amalgamation in 2000, nothing will be accomplished. Kevin Smith, however excellent his credentials, is not going to have a broad enough mandate to effect any significant change. That would involve a total restructuring of hospital/healthcare services for Niagara -- after a comprehensive assessment involving Niagara's medical professionals, social services, local politicians, and, in particular, the residents. Does that sounds like something this government would welcome? Not in a million years.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2. 
Post a Comment
Read more

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding:  There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities).    For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year.   But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending.  Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th
Post a Comment
Read more

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staffing.   Less and less of hospital spending is on staff.   Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development.  It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staff per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staffing capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another 33,778 full t
Post a Comment
Read more