Niagara ‘health-care emergency’?: Urgent care centre reductions spark accusations | Spare News

Anger over planned cuts to summer hours at south Niagara’s two urgent care centres is boiling over into words and proposed actions.

During Fort Erie’s town council meeting Monday night, Ward 5’s Coun. Tom Lewis said he will bring forward motions June 23 to withhold the municipality’s previously committed funds to Niagara Health for its south Niagara Falls hospital under construction and redirect them to other health-care initiatives.

He said he also plans to formally request the resignations of Lynn Guerriero, the hospital system’s president and chief executive officer, along with the entire Niagara Health board, and ask the provincial government to appoint a supervisor to oversee Niagara Health operations.

“This is a health-care emergency and a threat to our health-care safety net,” he said, adding Fort Erie residents “should be outraged.” 

“We thought we were funding a new hospital with urgent care services still within our community,” Lewis said. “We bought a horse and what they’re showing us today is a donkey. That is not acceptable.”

Mayors of Fort Erie and Port Colborne are also calling the reduced hours “unacceptable” and “deeply concerning,” as both communities brace for reduced access to medical services during the tourism season.

Niagara Health informed the municipalities it will reduce regular hours at its urgent care centres (UCCs) beginning in July, through to the Labour Day weekend.

The Fort Erie UCC will be closed Fridays and over two long weekends, while Port Colborne’s UCC will close on Saturdays. Both UCCs will also be closed Canada Day and Fort Erie will be closed for the civic holiday weekend, Aug. 1-4.

The announcement has sparked a war of words between the hospital system and the two mayors, with Niagara Health saying in an emailed statement some comments from politicians are “insulting.”

“Our urgent care centre is not a luxury, it is an essential service,” Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop said in a statement. “Scaling back operations during the busiest months of the year, when thousands of residents and visitors depend on timely access to care, shows a troubling disregard for the needs of our community.”

Port Colborne Mayor Bill Steele echoed that frustration.

“We are doing everything we can so that Port Colborne continues to have access to the health care we need, especially during the summer months when our population almost doubles,” he stated in a news release. 

The mayors said they have previously offered to collaborate with Niagara Health on physician recruitment efforts and emergency room operations at hospitals.

During Monday night’s meeting, Redekop said Niagara Health needs a formal physician recruitment plan, onboarding process and training programs to prepare family doctors for UCC and emergency work, and the town is willing to do what it can to help.

”(Niagara Health) has never reached out to Fort Erie to assist with physician recruitment initiatives, (or) to seek additional funding from the province if needed.”

He said the process has left municipalities without opportunities to help fill staffing gaps.

“Niagara Health simply decided to pre-emptively shutter UCCs,” he said, referring to its plans to close the UCCs after the new Niagara Falls hospital is complete in 2028.

In response to similar comments made earlier, Niagara Health sent a statement calling them “inflammatory.”

“Let us be clear: these are not decisions we want to make — they are decisions we have to make,” said Niagara Health.

“Our emergency-trained doctors are exhausted. We are short at least 10 to 15 physicians across our sites,” it said, adding if its limited emergency medical resources are not focused on keeping emergency departments (ED) in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland open 24-7, the entire region will be at risk.

“We have said this repeatedly: our priority is maintaining 24-7 ED care, where the sickest and most vulnerable patients come for treatment. We cannot, in good conscience, divert those resources to UCCs at the expense of emergency coverage. That’s not just operational reality — it’s a patient safety imperative.”

The statement said Niagara Health helped develop a model to bring a family physician group into the Port Colborne UCC site to support same-day access to care. It said Fort Erie has been encouraged to explore a similar model.

“We have offered to help develop it, identify partners and support implementation. No such proposal has been submitted from the town,” the statement said.

“Despite Niagara Health’s support, Fort Erie also did not apply for available provincial funding in 2023 to bring an interprofessional primary care model to the community — a missed opportunity that could have helped address the root cause of this challenge: the lack of access to primary care.”

Both mayors will speak further at a joint news conference scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Fort Erie town hall. Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates is also expected to be in attendance.