ER renovations on hold: NHS
Amanda Street
Published on
Jul 25, 2008
Port Colborne General's emergency room will still get its face lift, but all work has been delayed until the fall.
The Niagara Health System, which operates six hospitals in the region, announced a five-year improvement plan last week. Among the recommendations made is the removal of emergency and surgical services at Port Colborne General Hospital.
The services will be removed over five years. Twenty-four hour emergency care will be reduced to 14-hour prompt care, and eventually eliminated outright. The hospital will then operate as a community health centre focusing on primary care and chronic disease prevention. The hospital will also become a centre for complex continuing care with slow-paced recovery.
Port Colborne will become what the NHS calls a "centre of excellence" for diabetes care planning for all of Niagara.
According to CEO Debbie Sevenpifer, the renovations planned for Port Colborne will move forward, but not until the Local Health Integration Network approves the improvement plan in the fall. The renovations may not, however, be approved by the LHIN.
She said the hospital will still take in a high number of patients and the renovations are still in order to provide quality service.
"What we are looking at is ultimately there will be a high volume of patients at Port Colborne," she said.
She said a large percentage of patients using the emergency room currently do not need emergency care. She said those patients would continue to utilize the facility to seek primary care. During the average night shift at the hospital, staff may see five or six patients in total, she said.
From April 2006 to March 2007 more than 25,000 people visited Port Colborne's emergency room.
The $400,000 renovation plan was approved by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care last December. Construction was slated to begin in March with a completion by the end of this summer. The renovations are the first for the department since it opened in 1971.