Grimsby hospital fight affects all of Niagara
The fight over delivery of health services at West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby and debate over that medical institution’s future is one which should concern all Niagara residents.
The future of the hospital, a crucial provider of health services in West Niagara, has been in doubt since an Oct. 22 announcement by Hamilton Health Sciences that obstetrics and surgical services will be relocated to other sites for 27 months while the West Lincoln facility is renovated. Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) has tried to assure the public the relocation of services is “temporary’ and will be reversed once the $8.6 million project is completed. The renovations were identified, in a consultant’s report, as being necessary for the hospital to meet accreditation standards.
The HHS renovation proposal, released the same day as the municipal election, came as a bombshell to staff and supporters of West Lincoln Memorial. The hospital’s medical director, Dr. Gary Benson, resigned in protest. In an open letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott released earlier this week, the hospital’s professional and medical staff said they were never consulted about the proposal and were informed through a general staff announcement.
Opponents of the relocation of services have said it is an effective closure of the hospital.
“If surgical and obstetrical services are removed, we will not be able to maintain an anesthesia roster,” says the staff’s open letter. “Without an anesthesia roster, we will not be able to support or maintain the emergency room or the (Intensive Care Unit). There is a minimum cluster of services necessary to operate a small community hospital. Stripping away these services is a likely pathway to complete system shut down.”
Following the announcement, a petition against the HHS proposal quickly accrued 18,000 signatures and was presented by Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff in the legislature.
How does the fate of the Grismby hospital affect people living in St. Catharines, Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Port Colborne, Welland and other far-away municipalities? As it turns out, it does affect the rest of Niagara, directly and indirectly.
Directly, loss of obstetrics in Grimsby, for instance, would mean those babies born at West Lincoln Memorial would have to go elsewhere. That’s either hospitals in Hamilton or St. Catharines.
If the emergency room in Grimsby closes, lineups at ERs in Hamilton, St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls will certainly lengthen in a trickle down process that is all too easy to predict and which would also impact urgent care centres in places like Fort Erie and Port Colborne. For these reasons alone, all Niagarans should show support for the Grimsby hospital.
The outcry in Grimsby and its environs has produced some positive reaction. At a meeting of the Save and Rebuild the West Lincoln Hospital resident group on Tuesday, emergency department physician Dr. Matt Noble Wohlgemut said HHS representatives are meeting with medical staff from the Grimsby hospital to explore ways of keeping obstetrics and operating rooms running when the renovation starts — pending approval of provincial funding.
Which brings us to the indirect takeaways we should be watching for. If the cash-strapped Ford government which just released its fiscal update doesn’t commit to helping West Lincoln, what can hospital projects in the rest of Niagara expect? After all, the Grimsby hospital is right dab in the middle of Niagara PC country, within the riding of Niagara’s only Conservative MPP, Oosterhoff. If Oosterhoff can’t get his own government to support a community hospital in a Progressive Conservative-supporting riding, what happens to proposed hospital projects in Niagara Falls and Welland?