Area Politicians Concerned About Urgent Care Cutbacks

Niagara Health reducing hours in Fort Erie and Port Colborne

Several local politicians are speaking out after Niagara Health announced plans to close the urgent care centres at Fort Erie and Port Colborne overnight. 

Starting July 5th, the centres will operate between the hours of 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.

MPPs Wayne Gates and Jeff Burch are asking the province to provide emergency support to Niagara Health. 

"I am extremely concerned and disappointed that it has come to this," said Burch. "Around 10,000 people in Port Colborne are without a family physician, and folks that rely on the Port Colborne and Fort Erie Urgent Care Centres will now need to travel to other facilities in Niagara which often already operate above 100 per cent capacity. With the recent closure of after-hour emergency surgical services at the Welland Hospital, South Niagara families are being disproportionately impacted. Niagara deserves better and the Ontario NDP will continue to fight for patients and frontline staff."   

This is the second time in just over a year that the urgent care centre in Fort Erie has been closed or reduced their hours. 

Meanwhile, Port Colborne's urgent care centre faced closures just last October. 

We spoke to Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, who says he's worried that this could overwhelm emergency departments in Niagara. 

"If there isn't an urgent care centre available, then people who have gone there or would go there are likely to go to the emergency departments, which are further away and which have longer wait times."

He also notes Town council plans to have a special meeting to discuss the issue. 

Port Colborne Mayor Bill Steele has expressed similar concerns. 

"Port Colborne has approximately 10,000 residents without a family doctor. Their first point of healthcare contact is with an Urgent Care Centre or Emergency Department. Until we can provide residents with access to family doctors or local solutions to meet their health service needs, they will continue to need local Urgent Care Centres, or they will continue to overload our Emergency Departments elsewhere in Niagara."

Earlier today, Niagara Health announced they were cutting overnight service at the urgent care centres, due to staffing challenges. 

"Like most health systems in Ontario and Canada, we have experienced significant challenges finding enough health professionals to provide the level of service needed across the region. Our staffing challenges are so serious that our ED physician group has warned us about our ability to properly staff EDs with emergency-trained physicians and nurses. From June to August alone, our EDs are short 274 physician shifts."