Horwath meets ‘stressed-out’ health care workers
NDP leader holds town hall meeting
Home care nurses, poised to go on strike Friday morning, shared their concerns about an overwhelming workload with Andrea Horwath.
The provincial New Democratic Party leader heard from register nurses — one of whom described working conditions at Niagara hospitals as like being trapped in a rush-hour traffic jam in Toronto.
She heard from people from throughout Niagara, fearful of plans being implemented to close five hospitals and replace them with a single new site in Niagara Falls.
While Niagara faces some unique challenges, Horwath, the MPP for Hamilton-Centre, said most of the fears expressed during a town hall meeting at the Welland Civic Square Thursday were similar to concerns she’s heard in many Ontario communities.
“The frustration and fear that people are feeling about what’s happening to the health-care system here is unfortunately echoed in many, many other communities around the province,” Horwath said. “The government continues to say, ‘We’re putting more money into health care.’ They’re doing something awfully wrong if they keep putting more money into health care and yet the services continue to erode.”
Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins said the ministry has invested heavily in Niagara’s hospitals, increasing funding by 80% since 2003 and building a new hospital in St. Catharines. An additional $26 million was recently spent on planning for the new south Niagara hospital.
“We want to make sure that our hospitals are providing the best care possible for Ontarians,” he said, responding to questions via e-mail. “That’s why we appointed Dr. Kevin Smith to put Niagara Health Services in a strong position to deliver high quality health care for Niagara patients.”
He expressed confidence in Smith, the NHS chief executive officer who developed the recommendations for Niagara’s hospitals while working as a provincially appointed supervisor in 2012.
“We rely on experts and evidence to make our decisions on the services we provide for Ontarians,” Hoskins said. “That sometimes means making tough decisions.”
Nevertheless, Horwath said frontline workers are feeling “stressed-out and very worried,” while the public has become concerned health care is not available for them in the way that it used to be.
With Niagara’s aging population, she said the needs in the region are increasing.
“People are leaving hospitals sicker, people are lining up in emergency wards waiting for service,” Horwath said. “People are not getting the kind of service they need, and with an aging demographic clearly in this region that has some serious implications in terms of people’s well being.”
Ontario Nurses Association Local 26 president Loretta Tirabassi-Olinski said the NHS registered nurses she represents have felt the pressure of underfunded community health-care services.
“As a health care worker, I always feel like I’m in a traffic jam in Toronto,” she said. “I think our political and health-care leaders need to realize that we’re not dealing with the same animal that we were even five years ago.”
She said the province promised to enhance community healthcare programs to take some of the pressure of hospitals.
“You guys lied to us,” she said. “You told us you were going to give us some home care and give us some relief.”
Tirabassi-Olinski said hospital staff are now not only dealing with the “sickest patients coming in,” they also need to continue providing care for patients who could be looked after at home if the government delivered on its promised community home care.
And the problem is likely to get worse, said registered practical nurse Tristen Castro from Care Partners — a for-profit company contracted by the Community Care Access Centre to provide home-care services in Niagara.
Castro said the home care workers, represented by OPSEU Local 294, were walking off the job at midnight due to unacceptable working conditions.
“We are not considered an essential service … we can go out on strike.”
He said a majority of patients under the care of home-care nurses “are going to be forced to go to emergency rooms, which are already bursting at the seams.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake resident Sandra O’Connor joined residents from Welland, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, and Wainfleet sharing their common concerns about hospital closings.
Although community healthcare services continue to be underfunded, she said it didn’t prevent the closure of NOTL’s hospital.
“They’re not considering people in this whole paradigm,” O’Connor said.
She said her diabetic father was admitted into the Port Colborne hospital after he was infected with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Her 84-yearold mother was left with no way of getting to Port Colborne to visit him on his death bed.
“I think that’s inhumane,” she said. “They should be taking that sort of thing into consideration.”
Horwath said the minister of health is not listening.
“It’s pretty worrisome that so many people both on the professional side and on the community side who have shot holes in the report (recommending the hospital closures), who have raised real serious criticism of that report, when a minister simply crosses his arms and says, I don’t care what you say, this is what we’re going with,” she said.
“That’s a frightening thing, because it tells me it’s not about the appropriate solutions for the community, it’s about some other goal that the minister wants to achieve and that report justifies getting to that goal. That’s not what we should be doing if we really want to be improving our health care.”
Instead of using health-care funding to enhance frontline care, Horwath said too much of it is being spent on privatization, excessive health care administration pay cheques, and scandals.
“The Liberals see no evil, hear no evil and refuse to admit that they’re going down the wrong track on all of these issues,” she said.
Hoskins said the province will continue to work with the community to address these concerns.
“Our government has been consistent in our commitment to health care in the Niagara region, including Welland,” Hoskins said. “We will continue to work with Welland and the Niagara Region to ensure that patients are receiving the highest quality of care.”