A motion to keep full services at the Welland hospital has passed at Queen's Park.
Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch’s motion to keep the Welland Hospital’s emergency department and acute care services open passed after debate in the legislature last night.
“Families who rely on the Welland hospital deserve timely access to emergency and acute care when they need it,” said Burch. “Our community is growing and our health care system needs to keep pace. While we’re looking forward to the new Niagara Falls hospital, we can’t afford to lose these critical services that Niagara families rely on.”
From 2018 through 2020, the Welland Hospital ran at over 100 per cent capacity.
Burch says hospital capacity issues are leading to a crisis in ambulance services, where offload delays are hampering EMS response times and leading to code zero ambulance shortages.
"I am grateful that we were able to retain the Welland Hospital site through many discussions over many years with the Ministry of Health and the NHS. As construction of a new site in Niagara Falls is nearing reality, I would like to emphasize the need for our Welland site to be redeveloped. As the population of the catchment areas of our site is virtually exploding it is critical that the Welland site maintains full 24/7 ER services along with beds and support staff to provide these services. This population growth creates a need for critical care, complex care, and medical surgical beds at the Welland site. This should be included in plans for the site." Welland Mayor Frank Campion