Fort Erie pushing back as night-time closure of local health unit looms

Fort Erie is getting fed up with the fact that everything there’s an issue, usually staffing shortages, that it’s the town’s Urgent Care centre that suffers.

At the beginning of 2022, their Douglas Memorial Hospital was shut down completely for close to two months so that Niagara Health staff could be redistributed into the busier health units in Welland, St. Catharine and Niagara Falls during the pandemic.

However, at that time, Fort Erie residents were directed towards the Port Colborne Urgent Care unit. This time, it won’t be that simple.

Following last week’s May 31 decision by Niagara Health to close both the Fort Erie and Port Colborne units from 10 pm to 10 am, again for staff redistribution, starting July 5, Fort Erie held a town council meeting to deal with the matter.

At the June 5 meeting, Mayor Wayne Redekop said bluntly he was tired of getting the short end of the stick.

“It is not acceptable for the residents to be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to access to health care. It has become increasingly evident over the past two decades that Fort Erie will have to find its own solution to ensuring that our residents have long term access to the primary, after hours and diagnostic health care we need and deserve,” he said.

The town passed a resolution last night, asking Niagara Health to reverse its decision and continue full-service hours, 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

They also urged Niagara Health to “work with the Town of Fort Erie to secure the necessary human resources and funding required to permit full-time Urgent Care services.

When she made the announcement, Niagara Health President and CEO Lynn Guerriero said without the two overnight closures, Niagara’s ERs would have been short 274 physician shifts.

At Queen’s Park, both Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates (whose riding also covers Fort Erie) and Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch, who has the Port Colborne health unit in his riding were pushing Premier Doug Ford for the necessary funding to keep the two centres open 24 hours a day.

Below, Gates, flanked by Burch, spoke at Queen’s Park, emphasizing the necessity of keep the units open.

I'm a firm believer that when communities stand together, we can win.

So we're going to keep fighting, to ensure residents in Fort Erie get the 24/7 health care services they deserve, and that we stop Ford's attempts to privatize health care in the province of Ontario. #onpoli pic.twitter.com/JiKRFVcODR

— Wayne Gates (@Wayne_Gates) June 6, 2023