Christine Whelan, FEO, October 10, 2024, VOL. 6 ISSUE 3 

“We knew, going into this, as a group of volunteers, we needed much more.” Heather Kelley of Fort Erie Healthcare SOS told me when we met after the summit. “We needed the Town and the support of the community and business. We were just hit and miss. We’d hear from this person over here and that person over there. And that was great. But we needed something to tie everything and everyone together.”

“So, we chose to host the summit.”

Heather said they invited close to 150 people from all walks of life. “We tried to include big and small businesses. We put the appeal out to all the local doctors. We contacted all of the organized social groups in town. We also invited elected representatives.”

Ontario Health was there. “Ontario Health is the funding base right now. The Ministry gives them the money. They deem where the funding is going to go. They heard the passion of those involved and committed to making this work.”

Niagara Health Systems was there. “Niagara Health resigned from the Fort Erie Health Care Committee the day before the summit, but they still showed up. “

At the beginning of the day, Heather presented to the room. “We’re not here to talk about the problems. We are here now to talk about solutions.” And asking them what they can offer, as a solution?

“Whether they agreed or disagreed, we were looking for their opinions, their honest comments.”

The attendees were broken up into smaller groups for open discussion. “I had the opportunity to go from table to table and listen to what was being discussed.

Outcome

“We were looking for solutions and I think that’s what we found. The idea is to work towards opening a community-run facility.”

Is it possible?

I asked Heather if a community like Fort Erie could run its hospital. She responded with a smile. “We’ve done it before,” referring to 1931 when the hospital first opened and was run by the community.

“We were funded by the Ministry of Health and that’s our goal now, to continue to be funded by the Ministry of Health.

Some Importances for Saving the Hospital in Fort Erie

Heather noted that it’s important to keep the hospital going to make sure the two bigger hospitals in Niagara do not get overcrowded. “We want them to build those new hospitals. We’re not going to perform heart surgery in Fort Erie. What we are going to do is relieve some of the overflow. And that’s what we do now. We all need to work together in our roles.”

She admitted, “I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘If I had known that Fort Erie wasn’t going to have a healthcare facility, I may have selected someplace else to live. But I was brought here under the assumption.”

Heather brought up a discussion point from the summit, the capacity for training. “Fort Erie would be a great location for nurses to do their internship.”

When talking about the technology that is no longer in the Douglas Memorial building, Kelley commented, “If we have a local, community-based hospital, run by the community, with a Board of Directors, we will continue to look to social groups for donations to purchase necessary technology, but with the agreement that it will not be sold off to other healthcare facilities without their authority.

“It is lessons learned.”

Next Phase

“We’ll draft up the report and send it to all the attendees, then in November, we’re going to try to hold a public forum”

Heather says, what they want to do this time, at the forum, is listen. “After the last forum, the feedback from the community was, that there were so many speakers, they didn’t get enough time to talk. So, this time, we are going to listen.”

She reflected, “Our thought was, we need to educate. The crowd’s thought was, we want to tell you.”

Heather stated that it has taken time for community support to build to where it is now. She said many have not experienced the force of the Fort Erie weather, isolating the town. “It’s a lot of education that we’re doing. Some people accept what they’re told, putting faith in the new hospital coming to Niagara Falls, or think there’s no way we can get what we want.”

Another next step for Fort Erie Healthcare SOS, is “We will be looking at how to become a registered non-charitable group. We need to do this to get more and different kinds of funding. We need that funding to develop a proposal for the Ministry of Health. We have to do that this month coming up.”

Power in Numbers

“We’re looking at collaborating with other small communities facing the same circumstances as we are right now. Port Colborne, Welland, Minden, the South Muskoka area. We’re all doing the same things. We’re getting petitions signed and doing lawn signs to show support.”

She said it’s time to take it to the next level. “We’ve all been focusing on our own towns. Now, we have to work together.”

Gratitude

In wrapping up the summit, “It was an absolute joy to meet with the community and beyond. A lot of people came from out of town to offer their encouragement and support,” adding that not everyone agreed on everything, but that was not what they were looking for.

“I am lucky to have the volunteers that I have.” She agreed that she is surrounded by amazing people on this journey. “They have been so supportive.”

Kelley was clear. “This fight has nothing to do with nostalgia. It has everything to do with patient care,” noting that someone at the summit commented, ‘It’s not patient care, it is people care’.

“I didn’t expect we could build a hospital in these six hours but we did build a dream.”

“Don’t stop dreaming — and then make it happen.”

To keep up with Fort Erie Heathcare SOS, you can find them on Facebook. .