{"id":5795,"date":"2017-10-13T10:46:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T14:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=5795"},"modified":"2020-05-08T18:04:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T22:04:53","slug":"health-coalition-hopes-to-continue-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/health-coalition-hopes-to-continue-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Health coalition hopes to continue momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(October 11, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>By: Allan Brenner, The Standard<\/p>\n<p>While there\u2019s still room for improvement, Natalie Mehra said the Ontario government seems to be responding to concerns about hospitals across the province.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel hopeful,\u201d said Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, a group of activists working to improve the public health-care system.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, she said plans have been in the works to close Niagara\u2019s smaller hospitals for years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe doors of those hospitals are still open,\u201d she added. \u201cAs long as the doors are open, there\u2019s always a chance of improving services and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hoping to continue that momentum, the Ontario Health Coalition is organizing a series of hearings on health care in communities across the province, with two meetings planned for Niagara this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Angela Zangari, Niagara Health\u2019s executive vice-president and chief financial officer, said hospital administration will \u201ccontinue working with and listening to community members, who are important partners in our work to improve access to care and achieve the best possible outcomes and experiences for all Niagara residents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are fully committed to providing comprehensive health care services in Niagara Falls and Welland and are working towards this goal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mehra said the organization also had a hopeful sign that the Liberal government is listening in late May.<\/p>\n<p>After a \u201cWelland Day of Action\u201d organized by the group at Queen\u2019s Park on May 31, Health Minister Eric Hoskins twice said he would work to keep the hospital open, despite a previous plan to replace it with a single new hospital built in Niagara Falls to replace existing hospitals in both Welland and Niagara Falls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand the importance of that community hospital to the community and I will do everything I can to work with my ministry and with the community to keep Welland open. That is my commitment,\u201d Hoskins said in the provincial legislature. \u201cThat is what we have been working towards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mehra called it \u201cexcellent news,\u201d adding that the health coalition sent Hoskins a letter last week, asking for more information about plans to keep Welland hospital open.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, if the minister is trying his hardest that means the hospital will stay open. We want to know officially what the plan is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t pushed it over the top yet, but we have moved collectively. I\u2019m not trying to take all the credit. It\u2019s everyone from the mayors to the community campaign, everyone has definitely pushed the issue and changed the conversation quite a bit. I think there\u2019s hope there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mehra said there are still problems that need to be addressed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this point, Ontario has seen the worst cuts to public hospitals of any jurisdiction we could find,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have the fewest beds in the country per capita by far. It\u2019s not even in the ball park.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By giving people an opportunity to discuss their experiences and concerns about health care during the hearings \u2014 including one at Welland Community Wellness Complex at 10 a.m. on Saturday, followed by a second hearing at St. Catharines Public Library at 1 p.m. \u2014 Mehra hopes to continue making progress.<\/p>\n<p>The OHC plans to put those stories together in a report that will be presented to the provincial government, along with recommendations.<\/p>\n<p>Mehra said the last time the organization held a series of community hearings, they received 597 submissions that formed the basis of a report with \u201cconcrete recommendations\u201d for the province.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we stopped the closures. It was very effective. We feel that leading into an election, it could be even more effective,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe find that when we\u2019re trying to change public policy the most effective thing we\u2019ve done is to blow some fresh democracy into the room and force the government to have to listen to the people,\u201d Mehra said.<\/p>\n<p><a><em>ABenner@postmedia.com\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stcatharinesstandard.ca\/2017\/10\/11\/health-coalition-hopes-to-continue-momentum\">Click here for original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(October 11, 2017) By: Allan Brenner, The Standard While there\u2019s still room for improvement, Natalie Mehra said the Ontario government seems to be responding to concerns about hospitals across the province. \u201cI feel hopeful,\u201d said Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, a group of activists working to improve the public health-care system. For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health coalition hopes to continue momentum - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(October 11, 2017) By: Allan Brenner, The Standard While there\u2019s still room for improvement, Natalie Mehra said the Ontario government seems to be\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/health-coalition-hopes-to-continue-momentum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health coalition hopes to continue momentum - 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