Niagara Health System’s leadership lacks credibility and emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne should stay open, according to results of a survey commissioned by the Town of Fort Erie.

Results from the survey, conducted by Leger Marketing between Oct. 17-21, showed widespread pessimism about health care in the region, including that: 62 percent of Niagara residents believe that the NHS is not well-managed or credible; 61 percent believe the quality of health care will become worse in the next five years; and 95 percent think Fort Erie and Port Colborne should keep their local emergency rooms, even if it costs the system a little more.

“This independent, scientific survey shows without a shadow of a doubt that people all over Niagara Region  believe the Niagara Health System is on the wrong track,” said Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin. “People believe  our health care system is in decline, and that high-quality health care means keeping local emergency rooms  open.”

In July, after being ordered by the Local Health Integration Network to come up with a budget-balancing and future care plan, the NHS released a proposed restructuring plan which including effectively gutting hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne, along with consolidating many services, such as obstetrics, at a new hospital being built in St. Catharines.

The results of an independent review of the plan by Dr. Jack Kitts are to be unveiled Tuesday; the LHIN will unveil its decision on the plan by the end of the year.

 

NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer said she's not surprised at the results of the survey. 

 “There’s been a lot of rhetoric that we’re closing the emergency department in that community and we’ve said consistently that 95 per cent of the visits that currently go to that hospital emergency department will continue to go to that hospital (under) our hospital improvement plan to the prompt or urgent care centre," she said. "In fact, many of the acute illnesses that require ambulance in many cases already are bypassing that site directly to go to a larger site. Or if they happen to arrive there and are stabilized and assessed, they are in many cases transferred out to a larger site for a CT or MRI or other specialist care.

"Really the hospital improvement plan is formalizing the bulk of the care that’s already provided at that site.”

Other findings from the survey:

95 percent believe that Fort Erie and Port Colborne should keep their local emergency rooms, with  agreement on this question exceeding 80 percent in every municipality.  

95 percent believe a trip to an emergency room should always be less than 35 minutes by car, and 65  percent say the trip should not exceed 15 minutes.

93 percent believe that when hospitals need to make cutbacks, they should do everything possible to  protect emergency health care in local Niagara communities.  

62 percent disagree that the NHS leadership is “well-managed and credible”, with two-thirds of this group in  the “strongly disagree” category.

49 percent believe the quality of health care in Niagara Region has become worse since 2001, compared  with only 6 percent who say it has become better, and 37 percent who believe it has stayed the same.

61 percent believe the quality of health care under the current NHS leadership will become worse in the  next five years. 13 percent say it will improve, and 17 percent believe it will stay about the same.

Leger said the research included a random sample of residents of the results from a sample this size are considered accurate to within 4.9%, 19 times out of 20.