In the normally quiet Niagara Region, emotions are running high with proposed changes planned for Niagara Health System’s $370 million hospital system. Ironically called the “Hospital Improvement Plan” (or HIP for short), the very wheels of progress developed by the health authorities threaten to balkanize the very region of some 500,000 people it was set up to benefit.
In Ontario, health care services are planned by 14 Local Health Integration Networks (or LHINs) that are composed of health experts and ordinary citizens appointed by the province to consult and develop the most effective health care services for the population base they serve. Niagara Region is served by the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN.
After the Niagara Health System (NHS), which is the centralized administration of several local hospitals across the region, reported a looming $17 million deficit, the LHIN asked it to come up with a plan to not only become more efficient in the delivery of its services, but to provide for “centres of excellence” which would allow Niagara residents to obtain most of their health care services within the region, as opposed to having to travel to Hamilton or Toronto for specialized services.
The proposed HIP was the result of internal consultation between executives of the NHS and its major stakeholders, including senior physicians, nurses and other health care teams. However, when the HIP was released to the public in early summer, sparks began to fly across the Region, particularly in the southern most parts of Niagara, where …
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