Niagara News Bulletin

Niagara News Bulletin
by PV Niagara Bureau

* An 82-year old woman visiting her husband in the hospital was told to call an ambulance when she broke her hip near the entrance.  Ontario appointed a supervisor to take over the Niagara Health System (NHS) just before the provincial election to improve its management, and earlier cases resulted in one death.  Because of emergency room cuts in other hospitals (to be moved further away in favor of a P3 public-private-partnership i.e. for profit hospital) patients suffering from an in-hospital heart attack are told to call 911.
* Six weeks after the NHS declared a hospital-acquired infection outbreak over, another outbreak has been declared with 3 patients testings positive.  The earlier outbreak saw 36 patient deaths, and at the 35th death during the provincial election the Communist Party candidate Saleh Waziruddin  predicted more would die unless beds, staff, and services are restored to pre-cuts levels.
* The Regional Municipality of Niagara is considering privatizing its eight long-term care homes, where health care money would be diverted to private profits combined with possible cuts.  At least one councilor pointed out that  public homes are more accountable in reporting.
* A Welland food bank says it is getting above daily average pleas from both the “working poor” and “newly poor”, and many don't even apply because of the stigma of charity.
* Port Colborne residents suing Vale Inco for contamination of their lands are going to the Supreme Court of Canada after the Ontario appeals court reversed a $36 million judgment. The Ministry of Environment ordered Inco to re-mediate 25 properties because of high nickel levels, but the court ruled for the company because they didn't violate any regulations while polluting the land.
* The Council of Canadians has warned about the Niagara Falls Water Board across the border in New York offering to treat polluted water from hydrofracking (using high pressure water to break rocks and release gas) to raise money.  The group says companies don't report what's in the water and Canadians across the river, as well as US residents, will be paying with their health for the pollution.  The International Joint Commission found fracking chemicals in the Great Lakes recently, where Canada spends even less than the US on protecting one of the world's largest fresh water supplies.