OUR CASE FOR SUPPORT

As a result of our aging population and lack of specialized healthcare services, Niagara has one of the highest levels of chronic disease in Ontario.

Cancer and heart disease are leading causes of death in our region.  More than 30 percent of all deaths are due to heart disease. Niagara is the only region of its size that does not have its own cardiac catheterization unit, and on any given day, seven beds at the NHS are occupied by patients waiting for this cardiac diagnostic service outside of Niagara, with 800 patients leaving the region each year for this procedure.

One person in Ontario is diagnosed with cancer every 8 minutes.  In 10 years, as the province’s population grows and ages, a new diagnosis of cancer will occur every 6 minutes.  Niagarans face a higher than average incidence of cancer, and each year over 1,200 patients must drive to Hamilton for life-saving radiation therapy.

By the year 2013, chronic kidney disease in Niagara is predicted to double. We must increase our dialysis capacity to provide the life-saving care these patients need.

Mental health hospitalization is also higher-than-average in Niagara, but patients must leave the Region to access long-term care in Hamilton, Toronto or as far away as London, Ontario.

In fact, each year 67,000 people – our family members, friends, neighbours, co-workers and employees – are forced to travel outside the region for medical care. 

That’s one in six people – and that’s not acceptable.  Our patients and their families shouldn’t be burdened with the additional stress of commuting out of the region for treatment.

It’s your time to be part of the most momentous undertaking in the history of healthcare in the Niagara Region and help the It’s Our Time Campaign cross the finish line.

Improvements at existing NHS facilities
For years, the Douglas Memorial, Port Colborne General and Welland Sites of the Niagara Health System have provided care for the many residents of south Niagara.  The It’s Our Time Campaign will enable these sites to continue to meet the evolving healthcare needs of patients in these communities. Changes at these sites include:

Douglas Memorial Site

• equipment to support the Urgent Care Centre that will operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and continue to treat over 95% of the patients who currently use these facilities for urgent care
• renovations to facilitate development of the Complex Continuing Care Centre to provide specialized care to patients with complex care needs and/or multiple chronic diseases
• electric beds --it often comes as a surprise that most hospital equipment is paid for through donations, including electric beds, for which there is always a need in order to allow patients to be more independent

Port Colborne General Site

• renovations and equipment to create an Urgent Care Centre that will operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and continue to treat over 95% of the patients who currently use these facilities for urgent care
• upgrades and new diagnostic imaging equipment to support the Complex Continuing Care Centre and dramatically improve the quality of care for those with complex care needs and/or multiple chronic conditions

Welland Site

• the new 12,500 sq. ft. 24-station Welland Hospital Auxiliary Dialysis Centre, providing closer-to-home care for chronic kidney disease patients in south Niagara who come for treatments three to four times every week
• a new 128-slice CT Scanner for the Welland Site to replace the 4-slice model that has been in use for ten years.  A state-of-the-art CT Scanner will dramatically enhance diagnostic imaging capabilities and healthcare services for patients by enabling faster diagnosis and testing time

The Greater Niagara General Site will receive a new dialysis centre, upgraded operating rooms and diagnostic equipment that will vastly improve the services available to its patients.  Improvements as a result of our Campaign include:

• upgraded and expanded operating rooms and new anaesthetic equipment to provide a broader range of surgical procedures, including plastic surgery, ear, nose and throat surgery, dental surgery and orthopaedic surgeries
• a new Dialysis Centre to help meet the growing need for this life-saving care for kidney disease patients in the Niagara Falls area
• a state-of-the-art echocardiography unit to enable enhanced diagnostic services for cardiac care
• a new ultrasound machine for diagnostic services for cancer care

The New St. Catharines Site

The healthcare services for people living in St. Catharines, Thorold, and Niagara-on-the-Lake have long been over-burdened, but change is coming with the new St. Catharines Site.  The aging buildings lack compliance with current environmental standards and have inefficient functional layouts resulting in less than ideal service. At the St. Catharines site, there is no room for future expansion.  Staff and physicians continue to work in sub-standard working conditions that are not conducive to best patient care and comfort.

Located in the new healthcare complex, the new 375-bed acute-care facility will replace the aging St. Catharines General and Ontario Street sites of the NHS, offering acute and critical inpatient services, surgical, emergency and ambulatory services.

The new site will provide the infrastructure to house advanced technologies to attract and retain nurses, doctors and other professional healthcare specialists to Niagara.  For example, this new state-of-the-art facility will provide the opportunity to implement a comprehensive, largely paperless medical information system to enable healthcare professionals across Niagara to have instant access to patient records.

The design of the facility will promote patient-centered care, best practice in infection control and workflow efficiency.  One of the many features of the new site will be 80 percent single-patient rooms, the most available in any community hospital in Ontario.  Research shows that single rooms not only decrease the risk of spreading illness but also enable patients to get well faster.

Other features include ventilation systems that will keep contaminated air from flowing to other parts of the facility, inpatient and outpatient zones to allow for complete zone isolation in the event of a pandemic or other significant event, separate hand washing sinks in each patient room for staff use, as well as in corridors and other common areas to minimize the spread of infectious diseases, and state-of-the-art operating room suites designed specifically to incorporate and take advantage of sophisticated image-guided and laparoscopic surgery.

The new facility will also serve as the hub for regional specialized kidney services including dialysis, supported by the Dialysis Centre in Welland and the one planned for Niagara Falls.

New Regional Services to benefit patients throughout the Niagara region

Niagara Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine

Recruiting physicians is a major challenge for all Ontario hospitals as there are just not enough physicians to meet the demand.  The Niagara Campus of the McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine opened in September 2008, providing a vibrant academic environment to encourage medical students and other health-care professionals to settle in the Niagara Region.

The campus, currently at the St. Catharines General, will eventually move to a building at Brock University; however, the on-site Niagara Health System medical education areas will continue to be an integral part of the Medical School’s program.  The classrooms at the St. Catharines General will be relocated to a larger medical education area in our new Health-care Complex when it opens in 2013. Classrooms are also being built at the Welland and Greater Niagara General Sites, with training at Douglas Memorial, Port Colborne General and Niagara-on-the-Lake Sites.

By 2016, it is expected that more than 168 student physicians and medical residents will have their training in the hospital sites and health-care facilities of the Niagara peninsula each year.  The teaching spaces, along with on-call rooms and lounges for medical students and residents, will create a learning environment that benefits patients, hospital staff and physicians as well as the medical students. 

New Healthcare Complex

The new Complex will offer:

• Approximately 970,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility to be built on a 32-acre section of the 40-acre greenfield site
• LEED certified –“Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” - a ‘Green Building’ Rating System providing standards for environmentally sustainable construction
• Flexible design to minimize renovation costs during the life of the building due to equipment/technology changes and to provide greater flexibility for future expansion

Niagara Regional Walker Family Cancer Centre

While the NHS already offers high quality chemotherapy and cancer surgery, patients must travel to Hamilton or Toronto for life-saving radiation treatment.  The new Walker Family Cancer Centre will enable the delivery of comprehensive cancer treatment to Niagara patients including preventative, surgical, chemotherapy and radiation therapy - right here at home.  

This Centre of Excellence for cancer care will attract new medical specialists, technicians and other healthcare providers to Niagara, employing 146 full-time-equivalent staff, compared to the 50 now working in the NHS Oncology Program.   

With three radiation treatment units, 35 chemotherapy infusion chairs and two outpatient clinics for patient assessment, the Walker Family Cancer Centre will have the capacity to accommodate approximately 80,000 patient visits per year.

Niagara Regional Heart Investigation Unit
The Niagara Regional Heart Investigation Unit will enable an expanded cardiology program, featuring cutting-edge cardiac catheterization service to provide an invaluable weapon to combat cardiac disease.

Currently over 1800 cardiac catheterization procedures are performed on Niagara residents – all of which must be done in Hamilton.  Median waiting time for outpatient cardiac catheterization for Niagara residents going to Hamilton is 54 days, compared to the provincial average of 25 days – Niagarans have double the wait times of the rest of Ontario because there is no local service.

When the new Heart Investigation Unit opens, Niagara residents will have, for the first time, a cardiac catheterization service and the opportunity to evolve and advance cardiac services here in Niagara.  Niagarans will have access to a full-spectrum of care encompassing prevention, diagnosis, follow-up and research.  This will reduce hospitalizations for heart disease, lower wait times and improve access to treatment.

Niagara Regional Mental Health Centre
In 2002, the Niagara District Health Council’s Mental Health System Design identified numerous weaknesses in the continuum of mental healthcare for Niagara’s population.  Severe shortages were noted in the following components of service: crisis intervention, case management, housing employment, consumer/survivor initiatives, family supports and wellness as well as rehabilitation.

In order to better care for the needs of mental health patients, a new specialized program will exist at the new health-care complex, serving the entire Niagara region.  The new Regional Mental Health Centre will offer services ranging from crisis intervention to rehabilitation and family support, providing a vitally important resource to Niagarans struggling with mental illness. 

Niagara residents will not only have access to these new services – they will be provided in a brand new, state-of-the-art facility, equipped with long-term inpatient mental health beds, as well as acute mental health beds and ambulatory (out-patient) care for adults and children/adolescents.  The facility will provide support to those patients requiring longer-term mental health treatment and access to the specialized care they need to get well – here in Niagara. 

It’s your time to make HISTORY.  Donate Today