Helping shape a transformation
Conversations in communities across Niagara over the past several weeks have given the Niagara Health team an opportunity to hear from residents.
Turnout at our community engagement sessions about our future plans has been mixed, from packed rooms to conversations with only a handful of local participants, while others are opting to watch online and share feedback through our website. It’s been heartwarming to hear the passion people have for health care in every community we’ve visited.
It’s important to acknowledge not everyone universally supports our plans to focus our resources into three modern hospitals in St. Catharines, Welland and south Niagara. The emotional attachment to longstanding physical structures like those in Fort Erie and Port Colborne is palpable, making change a complex and sensitive issue.
But despite sometimes differing viewpoints, a common theme has emerged — Niagara residents care deeply about health care and they want to find solutions to overcome some of the big challenges we face. Comprehensive, teambased primary care, community-based services and collaboration with municipal and regional government leadership are essential to improving the health-care system.
Hospitals have and will always be a safety net. However, they have now become the first point of contact for too many, requiring hospitals to shoulder responsibility for filling gaps in primary and community care. This poses challenges to our core functions, particularly in providing emergency and acute care, sometimes impacting the delivery of high-quality hospital care.
Throughout our recent community engagement sessions, we’ve received valuable feedback from residents on several key topics. These include discussions on emergency department wait times and anticipated improvements under our new model, the state of mental health care and the seamless delivery of care across three hospital sites in distinct communities.
The new south Niagara hospital will have an expanded emergency department that can accommodate twice the patient volumes of the current Niagara
Falls site. The three-site hospital model will bring our emergency trained staff together to deliver faster and more efficient services, reducing wait times. Patients will have access to a full suite of hospital services and there will be no wrong door.
In Niagara, we are seeing a notable increase in mental health patients accessing emergency departments. In the past decade, we’ve seen a 33 per cent increase in people seeking mental health care. Niagara Health manages the highest mental health and addictions patient volume among all large community hospitals in Ontario, serving about 9,000 patients a year. There are other providers who would be better suited to help many of these patients in the community, but those services are experiencing the same human resource shortages.
Concentrating our hospital resources at three cornerstone hospitals is not just a strategic decision, but a necessity to deal with ongoing health human resource shortages. By focusing our expertise and resources, we will optimize delivery of specialized, high-quality care that meets the health-care needs of our community.
Equally important is creating a work environment that attracts and retains new doctors and other health-care providers. This approach not only enhances the quality of care but also reflects the modern healthcare environment that all health professionals seek — a place where they can thrive, innovate and deliver the best possible outcomes for patients.
We want to acknowledge the challenging nature of the changes ahead. While this transformation may not be easy, we believe it is the right model for the future and necessary to address ongoing challenges in our health-care system.
We are grateful for the community’s engagement, and are committed to using the next five years to build and strengthen partnerships, develop a strong and sustainable hospital system while supporting improved comprehensive, teambased primary care and community care services.