What will it take to get local health care and/or hospitals back on track in the riding?
Restoring services or eliminating the LHIN does not change the fundamental problem that the NHS is suffering from a terminal case of poor governance and weak management. The NHS has proven to be too big to be effective and responsive. The patient was sick and it needed radical surgery.
That’s why I sought and demanded the services of an outside independent supervisor who will examine the governance and leadership model and restore a patient comes first model that is open, more transparent and will communicate effectively with the public. (This appointment is supported by the doctors, nurses, care workers and your local mayors).
Without trust, without leadership, without goals and without co-ordination we will all be sicker and poorer. We need to deliver services closer to where we live. Bigger is not always best and small can deliver big results. Getting little things right will make the system work better.
We operate on a Universal System which is dependent on taxation. We have a growing demand for health care. Even though close to 50% of all taxes are spent on health care, it’s still not enough to cover the demand and it’s only going to get worse. People need to admit and accept that private subsidies are going to become a reality. Money is a dirty word to many Ontarians who don’t like to equate it with the preciousness of health. The reality is that money is a vehicle that we need to improve health care. I strongly agree that everyone needs access to health care, but it is quite obvious that tax dollars alone are not enough. Other parties advocate making cuts in other departments. There is only so much we can cut before we need to create more revenue. Private companies create wealth, government merely spends it.
The immediate short term solution is to eliminate expensive government bureaucracy such as the LIHN, and invest the 250+ million in savings into front line needs such as medical facilities, modern equipment and highly skilled medical workers. The long term answer is to keep people from getting sick. Unfortunately that will be very difficult if not impossible since our governments, in cooperation with giant pharmaceutical (Merck) and biotech company’s (Monsanto) keep poisoning us with their tainted vaccines, dangerous GMO food products and polluted air and water. The list goes on and on. We need first bring to justice those who are responsible, expose to the public what they have done, then when found guilty, prosecute. We then need stop and begin to revers whats already been done. If we don’t address the root problems then all we’re doing is treating the symptoms.
The management of our health care system in Niagara has been an unmitigated disaster over the last 8 years. The Craitor/McGuinty Liberals wanted to create political cover for themselves on health issues, so they created the LHIN’s to oversee health care delivery. While other regions with multiple hospitals under one management in Ontario have been successful (Ottawa, London, Hamilton) ours has not. Our area MPPs Craitor and Bradley have abdicated their oversight responsibility to the LHIN’s and the resultant bad management has created our situation.
We would: immediately eliminate the LHIN’s and invest all of the savings into front-line health care; reopen the Douglas Memorial ER in Fort Erie; support our seniors and free up hospital beds by adding 5,000 new long term care beds and renovating 35,000 more; increase investments in home care; bring more doctors to under-serviced areas; and establish wait time guarantees for emergency rooms.
There needs to be an independent investigation of what has transpired over the past several years, with recommendations as to what can and should be done to ensure that the people of Niagara have the hospital services that they deserve. The provincial government has to move away from a bottom line focus on health care to a patient-centred quality of care focus. In order to accomplish this, the government has to ensure that there is an efficient system of electronic health records for all primary care porviders, error-reduction strategies, quality of care standards and performance indicators and appropriate investment in health promotion, home care and long-term care homes. We need to regard doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and all health care providers as resources who can assist us to build the very best health and hospital systems in Canada.
It’s time to refocus the health care system on programs that will prevent illness in the first place while improving access and quality. We can create efficiencies, better manage costs, and improve outcomes by making front line health care more accessible. Investment in health promotion and illness prevention will pay massive dividends in alleviating strain on the health care system in the future. We need to provide incentives for people to pursue healthy lifestyles and support school-based nutrition, outdoor education, and athletic programs. It costs much less to keep people healthy than to treat illness. We need to focus our system to concentrate on true health care – not just sick care. The real issue with health care becoming sustainable is that it requires solution-focused leadership and commitment that carries beyond the four year election cycle. The Green Party platform is committed to providing that leadership.
Since the good community hospitals that we had got completely ruined, we could only back track so much. Yes, re-open emercancy services in Fort Erie. Do not close the maternity ward in Niagara Falls. However, when it comes to other services, alternatives like at home care and smaller community supported services would suit our needs. This would be better than throwing more money into a system that is clearly not managed well and only wastes our tax dollars without serving us. Niagara needs strong leadership, people who are capable of making a desicion and taking action when situations arise.
Tim Tredwell did not respond to the question by deadline.
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