Mayor Doug Martin is leading the charge to keep the doors of the Douglas Memorial Hospital's emergency room open.

Martin has formed a committee with former mayors Wayne Redekop and John Teal to counter the plan Niagara Health System put forward to reduce its deficit and streamline services. Unfortunately for residents in Fort Erie, part of the NHS's plan is to remove day surgery and close the emergency room within five years.

"They have made their decision," Martin said at council Monday, noting the group's focus will be to form a rebuttal against the plan to present to the Local Health Integration Network, the group which governs the NHS.

Martin said the group will act "quickly and professionally."

Core services at Douglas Memorial and Port Colborne General are being moved out of town as part of the NHS's attempt to balance its budget by 2011, it was announced July 17.

In May the health system was directed by the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldminand-Brant LHIN to come up with a hospital improvement plan.

The result will be the removal of emergency and surgical services from both hospitals by 2013.

The constant care units at both hospitals, which have been temporarily closed since last year, will not reopen, said CEO Debbie Seventies.

The plan outlines the transformation of both hospitals into what the report calls "vibrant community health centres" focusing on primary care and chronic disease prevention.

Both sites will become centres for complex continuing care with slow-paced recovery for people with complex medical needs as well as preparing transitional patients for their return home or to a new facility.

Douglas Memorial will operate a satellite site for dialysis care.

Port Colborne will become what the NHS calls a "centre of excellence" for diabetes care planning for all of Niagara.

Over the next five years emergency care at Port Colborne and Fort Erie will be whittled down from 24-hour emergency care to 14-hour prompt care and eventually down to none, with just outpatient clinic services.

Sevenpifer said she is unsure when the prompt care plan will come into play. The LHIN will make a decision on the plan in the fall.

Decisions on other support services, such as increased paramedic coverage, have yet to be made, but will be in place before reducing emergency service by ten hours, she said.

"It won't happen over night," she said. "We are not going to be removing any services until we can ensure we will be able to do so safely."

Sevenpifer said the bulk of the visits to the emergency department at Douglas Memorial Hospital aren't urgent and in most cases patients can wait until the morning to see a doctor.

"This is not a significant impact to the service levels that we are suggesting at the Douglas Memorial site," Sevenpifer told The Post after the plan was released in Welland.

"This is a vision for Niagara and we're saying that the current model is not sustainable. Part of the vision for Niagara is that over 90 per cent of residents will be within 30 minutes of a hospital and 30 minutes to a centre of excellence. That's an acceptable standard level of access throughout the problem," she said.

The level of proposed service isn't good enough for Redekop.

"There are certain essential services that are necessary, such as the emergency room," he said. "We were told there would always be communication between the NHS and the municipal administration. That hardly ever happens. Usually what happens is they decide to do something, somehow we hear about it and then there is the 'Oh yes, we forgot to tell you. It won't happen again,' but it continually happens," he said.

Redekop said about five years ago, he met with the NHS and put forward ideas to help the NHS save money but at the same time keep core services in Fort Erie. He said he is disappointed the current plan doesn't reflect any new, innovative ideas.

"If you've got the same people, with the same mindset, looking at the same set of problems and thinking the same solutions you're not going to end up with anything different," said Redekop, adding it will take greater creativity to find a solution.

Redekop said because the hospital's fate rests in the hands of the LHIN, the committee plans to work counter some of the points in the NHS' plan.

"It's a hospital improvement plan not for the people of Fort Erie. It's a hospital improvement plan for somebody."

Regional Coun. Shirley Cordiner expressed similar concerns not only over health care for current residents but also for newcomers to town.

"The region has identified Fort Erie and Grimsby as areas to grow," she said. "I think (the closure of the emergency room) is going to be a real detriment to our community."

Cordiner said although the town was approved for a community health centre by the province in 2005, it wouldn't be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"I think we have to fight the battle to keep this open. I don't understand it, given the growth of Fort Erie. I don't think we can sit back and watch this happen. They have been trying to do this all along and it can't happen."

Cordiner, who sits on the public health committee at the region, said a recent report showed ambulances waiting for lengthy period of times to drop off patients because there aren't enough beds at the Welland, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines sites.

"If you close down emergency, paramedics are going to have to transport to Niagara Falls or Welland, tying up an ambulance longer. Ambulances are backed up at the three big hospitals because the emergency rooms are already so busy they can't offload patients."