Yes, those were the heady days of when health care meant one didn't have to wait an entire afternoon at an emergency ward for care, and area residents also didn't have to worry about whether or not their local emergency care would even continue to exist.

Those days are long gone, as the residents of Niagara West and Niagara-on-the-Lake learned more than 10 years ago and, it appears, Fort Erie and Port Colborne may learn in the coming days and years.

With the announcement made by Niagara Health System officials last week that major changes will see Fort and Port bear the brunt service reductions with emergency care being eliminated at both facilities the future there looks bleak.

"Essentially, Port Colborne Hospital won't be a hospital under their plan," says Port's Regional Coun. Bob Saracino.

And that was exactly the sentiment of Niagara West's residents when they were told WLMH would have its "acute care," as was the buzz term for emergency care at the time, and its obstetrics ward (a hugely popular feature at West Lincoln) shut down. Really, what was to be left, as opponents of the Niagara District Health Council's plan said, was a glorified physio facility.

What ensued was a public outcry the likes of which should absolutely be mirrored in Port and Fort, both smaller communities with access and geographical issues.

The "Save The Hospital" committee in Grimsby, of which I was a part, left no stone un-turned and supported fully local health care officials who master-minded an educational and administrative link to Hamilton Health Sciences.

The simple answer ... they got the heck outta Dodge!

The NDHC was going to close the place up. WLMH not only got in line with HHS, but has flourished as a rurally designated training facility for young docs.

Now, 10 years on, WLMH is in line for a brand new hospital with enhanced facilities.

That two-paragraph synopsis is overly simplistic and a full page could not do justice to the amount of work and long hours that went into making the arrangement which saved health care in Niagara West.

But my best advice to residents of Port and Fort is, to simplify, find a way.

It is impossible to logically view the decision of a body that cuts out the health care heart of a community which it is to serve. Is it to justify the expense of the new St. Catharines hospital with the highly suspect location?

To "defend" the Niagara Health System officials who authored last week's report, as far back as the "Key Findings From The Niagara District Health System Monitoring Report" of 2004, it was stated, "It is clear that additional resources are needed in Niagara to adequately address current and future health care needs."

That won't change.

It is funny to note that report also makes the WLMH-HHS agreement sound like it was part of a plan the NDHC had to streamline and improve service.

"The administrative service contract between West Lincoln Memorial Hospital and Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, the creation of Niagara Health System through the amalgamation of eight of Niagara's 10 hospitals and the agreement between Hotel Dieu Health Sciences Hospital and the St. Catharines General site of the NHS to co-locate on a single site are milestones in Niagara's journey towards a better coordinated and more integrated system of health care," it reads.

Milestone? How about use of an administrative defibrillator to bring a viable and needed hospital back to life in a community in which it was and is vital. The same is true for Port and Fort. Get those defibrillators ready ...

"Clear ... !'