Ontario patients better off to go to Buffalo for health-care

Charles Davies of Fort Erie wrote in “NHS proposal shows poor planning”, (Niagara This Week, Nov.14, 2008):

“What is an expert? Some say it is a person outstanding in his field. He may be so far out in his field, so far removed from reality, that he cannot make wise decisions. There are no experts - only people with opinions, often biased in their beliefs.

Dr. Jack Kitts may be a good doctor but it is clear that he is not qualified to make judgements on urban or municipal planning, demographics, business administration, human resources, or, for that matter, on human rights. All weigh heavily on the operation of our health services. He has rubber stamped, the Sevenpifer, Shragge, Souter plan with only one meaningless minor change. As it stands we will lose our hospital.

The NHS information flyer sent out to all homes to convince people that their "improvement plan" will benefit all Niagarans, is riddled with holes. They claim that 95 per cent of all emergency visits at Fort Erie and Port Colborne are not emergencies. Would the percentages not be the same for the larger hospitals? And who knows how many of those DMH visits could become major problems if not examined by a qualified doctor. Their plan would require ambulance attendants to determine the severity of a case and where patients will go, by passing DMH and Port.

One of their statements, if this was not such a critical issue, would be laughable. They say that in the event that the QEW is closed due to a severe storm "ambulances would still be allowed to travel on the highway" or "alternative routes" could be used. Which routes? A "lake effect storm" blocks all roads in the southern tier.

The whole NHS proposal is an example of poor planning and weak arguments. It is ill conceived and will have horrendous consequence down the line, if implemented.

We have been asked to pay a premium for "timely care" which we are about to lose. The provincial government cannot sidestep on this issue.

The Ministry of Health and Dalton McGuinty are ultimately responsible for what happens on our doorstep.”

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Try as they might, the McGuinty Liberals, through their Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act, cannot side-step the fact that they are completely responsible for their single-minded adherence to their failing single-payer health-care monopoly.

Will St. Catharines Liberal MPP, Transportation Minister, and health-care monopolist Jim Bradley answer which 'alternative routes' emergency patients will use during a snowstorm to get from the outer reaches of Niagara to the proposed $600 million regional hospital in St. Catharines?

Will Transportation Minister Jim Bradley guarantee that Fort Erie/Port Colborne patients affected by the NHS’s HIP will be able to access hospital services some 30-40 kms away in a timely manner?

It looks like Buffalo would be a better health-care destination for southern-tier patients, in more ways than one. (That is, until the Americans ruin theirs by emulating Ontario's sicko single-payer health-care monopoly)

“The first time someone dies because they cannot get to an emergency room within the critical period of time there will be a lawsuit directed at those responsible for the plan,” writes Davies.

Think that Jim Bradley’s Liberals care about that?! Do you think Bradley's Liberals really concern themselves if patients are harmed or die because the Liberals moved their bait-and-switch health monopoly's facilities to another city?! The Liberals have already decided to take their chances to gamble with patient safety, clinging to their failing monopolist ideology rather than give patients payer/provider health-care choice.

Did the Liberals tell anyone in the last election that to obtain government-run universal health care you’ll need a lawyer to file lawsuits? What good is that after the fact, anyway - finding out too late that the health-monopoly in Ontario, a racket run by the Ontario Liberals, made tempting illusory claims about providing universal health-care, and then, failed to provide it when you needed it??

We will be told that “No one is to blame”. No one is responsible in a socialist system: that’s the cruel beauty of it. We will be solemnly told that “The System” is to blame, and the Liberal politician puppet-masters running Ontario’s no-choice health-care monopoly will be held harmless from prosecution. Their personal health-care negligence, instituted through their monopolist legislation, will be white-washed.

This is why there already is a lawsuit (see: Canadian health-care: go wait in line and die if necessary) against McGuinty’s Liberal-run health monopoly, launched by Ontarians Mr. Lindsay McCreith and Ms. Shona Holmes; it’s a constitutional challenge to the McGuinty Liberal’s ideological (and harmful) implementation of monopoly, no-choice health care.