Sarah Ferguson wrote in "Health System's hospital improvement plan to go under the microscope. An independent third party review will see what is working and what isn't in the hospital improvement plan", (Niagara Advance):
"The public will have a say in their health care in the Niagara Region with an independent third party review on its way.
While the review was requested because of changes to hospital services, mainly as a result of the new St. Catharines hospital, it will have implications across the region including to Niagara-on-the-Lake health services, says Regional Chair, Gary Burroughs.
The review of the Niagara Health System Hospital Improvement Plan (NHS HIP) will include services such as the family health team in Niagara-on-the-Lake, he said.
He believes the review will shed light on any problems with any medical services within a community, Burroughs said, and needs to be done to know where services in health care can be improved.
"The review will bring a lot of facts to light and it will bring us up to date."
Leading up to the announcement of the review, Burroughs and politicians from the Niagara region met with Deb Matthews, Ontario Health Minister, to ask for a review of the HIP plan and its implementation to date.
The discussion also included the importance of a patient's experience, the implementation of the HIP and the quality of work life for staff.
Matthews asked the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), responsible for planning and funding health care for the region, for the review.
The review was approved by the LHIN last week.
In a letter to Burroughs following the meeting, Matthews said the government is committed to ensuring the people of Niagara have the highest quality health care.
Since 2003, Matthews said, the government has provided increased funding to the NHS by more than 50 per cent. It has been committed to building a new hospital in St. Catharines, it has provided support to help the NHS drive down emergency department wait times and it has increased access to care in the community.
In the letter, Matthews said she hopes the review will provide valuable information on the implementation of the HIP.
"I continue to have confidence in the quality of health care the NHS delivers to the people of Niagara. However, I think it is important the people of Niagara share that confidence as well."
Matthews recommended the LHIN establish a committee of LHIN board members, NHS board members and members of regional council to establish the terms for the review.
She also recommended a subcommittee made of community partners and health professionals who represent Emergency Medical Services, the local Community Care Access Centre, the long-term sector and public health to be formed.
This committee will be consulted and asked to endorse the terms of the review before it is approved by the LHIN board.
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor was among the politicians who attended the meeting in April. Having been the one to arrange the meeting, he said he believes a review would be beneficial for the HIP.
"This is a chance for a truly community review of the HIP. I'm excited we're going to the public."
He says when the NHS was originally formed, there was no public input.
"This is something different. The review will be open and it will consult with the public."
Craitor says there is nothing in the near future which the HIP is planning to implement so there is reasonable time to do a full review and ensure the people of Niagara have the best health care."
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Note carefully how Liberal jerk Kim Craitor - as usual - FAILS TO MENTION the LHIN'S role in not only creating, but also approving the HIP!! (see also here; see also here) Note how reporter Ferguson conveniently fails to mention that Craitor is a LIBERAL MPP. ooops....
Note how for Kim Craitor - as was documented earlier here - this is all about attacking the NHS, not about acknowledging the direct role which his own Liberal government played in forcing the Liberal-created LHIN to force the NHS to create the HIP in the first place!!
Notice (outlined above in red) how slimeball Craitor came up with this disingenuous, greasy conflation:
" "This is a chance for a truly community review of the HIP. I'm excited we're going to the public."
He says when the NHS was originally formed, there was no public input."
Funny how reporter Ferguson didn't bother to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, what the FLICK does the creation (over a decade ago) of the NHS have at all to do with the HIP, which your own government foisted onto the NHS in 2008?" !!
Funny how reporter Ferguson somehow just didn't bother to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, please explain to us how it is that your own LHIN's were formed?! Where was all the "public input" when your Liberal majority, under health minister George Smitherman, rammed those LHIN's through Queen's Park?" !!
Reporter Ferguson also conveniently forgot to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, isn't this Niagara-Haldimand LHIN - which is now suddenly tasked with creating all these busy committees and subcommittees, and which is now tasked to approve the terms of reference for this NHS HIP review - the same LHIN which happily approved the HIP in the first place?" !!!
Why should the incompetent LHIN - which forced the creation of the HIP mess in the first place - now be trusted to review the same mess which it helped cause?!?"
Reporter Ferguson also forgot to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, isn't it true that the HIP plan was forced onto the NHS by the LHIN and the LHIN's creator-overseer, Liberal health minister George Smitherman?"
Reporter Ferguson also forgot to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, now that even Dalton McGuinty has blamed the LHIN for the HIP, why are you and Deb Matthews disingenuously and falsely focusing on the NHS, instead of on the real culprit: the LHIN and its Liberal masters??"
Reporter Ferguson forgot to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, if, as you intimate, the HIP and the NHS were so bad, why wasn't former boss Sevenpifer fired outright years ago?!
And Mr. Craitor, why did your Liberal government not only REFUSE to fire the entire NHS board , but your Liberals also refused to appoint a Supervisor, which would have allowed the Ombudsman the legal ability to investigate the NHS?
Mr. Craitor, why did your secretive Liberals continue this duplicitous game-playing with the NHS - and only now, several months before an election, are you agreeing to some kind of tepid, half-cocked, last-minute investigation - which should have been properly done years ago?"
Reporter Ferguson forgot to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, why is your Liberal government going through this charade of picking and choosing some kind of 'third-party' to conduct this so-called 'HIP review', when there already is a qualified independent third party: Ontario's Ombudsman?
The Ombudsman's office is more than capable of handling an arm's-length-independent investigation of not only the HIP plan, but also of the related culpability of the LHIN and the Liberal-run Ministry of Health in this matter.
Why are your Liberals afraid of having Ombudsman Andre Marin investigate the Liberal-instigated political manipulations which directly led to the creation of the HIP?"
Reporter Ferguson also neglected to ask:
"Mr. Craitor, you claim 'there was no public input in creating the NHS' - but isn't that an outright lie?"
Reporter Ferguson did not follow up with:
"Mr. Craitor, if you continue to disingenuously make up fictions about what led up to the creation of the NHS, then what was the NDP's initiative - way back under Bob Rae in the 1990's - all about, when District Health Councils in Ontario - including in Niagara - were asked to examine their hospital services?
Was there not plenty of public input there, Mr. Craitor?
Are you even aware of any of this, Sir, or are you just bullshitting, pretending to be ignorant, and hoping that others will fall for your partisan crap?
Wasn't there also a Hospital Restructuring Commission, which carried on the recommendations of the DHC's, with public hearings throughout the province - including in Niagara?
Mr.Craitor - is this a surprise to you?
Do you seriously believe your own bullshit that the NHS's creation was somehow made in SECRET ?!?
Sir, are you FLICKING insane? (...When it comes to secrets, Mr. Craitor, how... umm... "public" was YOUR fascist Liberal G20 law?!)
Mr. Craitor, do you seriously want Ontarians - including the residents of Niagara - to believe your lies that such public meetings and hearings regarding the creation of the NHS never occurred?!!"
Nope - reporter Ferguson never asked Kim Craitor about any of this.
Someone should.
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see Hansard, Dec.7, 1999
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