NOTL doctors desiring new clinic engaged in ‘fear-mongering’: Mazza
Rezoning for a new medical clinic in Niagara-on-the-Lake is “far from a slam dunk,” says a municipal councillor, responding to concerns from residents that they might lose their family doctors to an out-of town location.
Last fall, Niagara-on-the-Lake doctors, members of the Niagara North Family Health Team, announced they had chosen property beside Crossroads Public School for a new clinic. The site backs on to Niagara Stone Road, but its entrance will be from Line 2.
At an information meeting in March, residents said they were concerned about safety for kids walking to school, and about an increase in traffic at an awkward intersection, said Coun. Martin Mazza.
Atraffic study, although not mandatory, was requested of the developer, with results expected to be presented at a town planning meeting next week.
In the meantime doctors in a letter have petitioned their patients to support rezoning to permit the clinic.
“If the project doesn’t proceed, we may be forced to seek other options outside the community,” the letter said.
Seven of the 11 doctors’ offices are now at Niagara Medical Centre on Niagara Stone Road, just north of Virgil, with four in the basement of the former hospital. The doctors at the medical centre have chosen not to renew their lease, which expires at the end of
2019, and the doctors at the hospital are expected to be out by the end of October 2019. The town purchased the hospital building from Niagara Health, and offered it to the doctors, who said it would be too expensive to retrofit.
Their first choice had been for a community health hub on town-owned property to offer health services, but they began looking for an alternative site with a building designed to suit their needs once it became obvious their hope for the hub stalled, the doctors said last fall.
Mazza said they make it seem like they have no other options, when there is a site plan agreement in place for Anthony Annunziata, owner of the medical centre where the 11 doctors are now located, to expand. Annunziata’s proposal would allow space for all the needs of the health team, Mazza said, plus parking.
“The problem I have is (the doctors) are scaring the patients and giving the impression they have nowhere to go,” said Mazza. “There is free parking at the Niagara Medical Centre and the municipal bus will pull right in. Annunziata has approvals for the expansion but the doctors there say they’re pulling out. They’ve given their notice.”
The way the doctors handled the letter to patients, he said, “is 100 per cent fear-mongering.”
Patients are asking councillors to support the rezoning to keep their doctors in town, and Mazza said he has no issue with that, but he does have a problem with what he sees as a threat from the doctors. He pointed out many of the health team’s 13,000 patients are seniors with transportation issues, and for the doctors to say they might have to leave the community “is not fair to them.”
The matter will be debated at the Monday, May 7, committee-of-the-whole meeting at town hall. It begins at 6:30 p.m.