It was more than a year ago that Coun. Sandra O’Connor told her fellow councillors Niagara-on-the-Lake was short a nurse practitioner, and began her quest to remedy the situation.
Although there are two such positions that are part of the Niagara North Family Health Team, she was concerned about the lack of health care for those in the community who are not rostered patients.
Last Thursday, MPP Wayne Gates and Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa sent a joint letter to Premier Doug Ford’s health minister, Sylvia Jones, calling for a nurse practitioner to serve the NOTL community.
O’Connor says she is grateful to have the lord mayor and MPP onside, lobbying the provincial minister of health to pave the way for a nurse practitioner in town who will see residents and visitors who don’t have a local doctor. “I just hope for a response.”
There was a time in past years when a third nurse practitioner had an office in the former hospital building, down the hall from the doctors’ offices, but who was employed through Niagara Health, with funding from the province.
She could see anyone on a walk-in basis, including visitors and those who didn’t have doctors in town, but when she went on maternity leave and didn’t return, she was not replaced.
While the family health team in town, with offices in the Niagara Medical Centre in Virgil and in the new medical building in The Village, have two new physicians, O’Connor says there could be as many as 6,000 without a doctor.
She has maintained since she began pushing for the return of the nurse practitioner that although health care falls under provincial jurisdiction, municipalities have a role to play in advocating for the health-care needs of their community.
While it seems the health ministry is supportive and funding is in place, it isn’t clear what the hold-up is.
“A year ago, it seemed like there was a commitment from Minister Jones to the town,” Gates told The Local, “and I’ve met with Gary (Zalepa) three or four times since then. We decided on a joint letter, hoping the local MPP and the town working together might help get a positive response.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake has a high population of senior residents, with approximately 36.2 per cent of the town’s population 65 years and over, the letter says, and “seniors in our community deserve access to health care that is publicly available and easily accessible.” And as a popular tourist destination and place to retire, “additional nurse practitioner services for Niagara-on-the-Lake are critical to help ensure everyone who lives, works or visits the community will have access to the care they need.”
“Recently," it adds, "seniors in the community have been forced to travel long distances to different municipalities to get the care they needed. A nurse practitioner position, available to all residents as a walk-in service, is essential to assist these individuals in their time of need.”
It’s not the first letter from Gates, and he has used the opportunity of a committee meeting discussing provincial spending to ask Jones about a nurse practitioner for NOTL.
“With a significant primary care shortage, and lack of access to emergency hospital services, Niagara-on-the-Lake needs the ministry to follow through on their promise for nurse practitioner services,” says Gates in the news release announcing the joint letter sent Thursday.
“We know there is a desperate need, and we’ve been promised it’s coming,” he told The Local. “We think we’ve been fair and patient.” Although the letter has been sent, he planned to personally deliver it to the minister on Monday, either before or after question period.
The hospital closing “put an extra burden on those needing medical care. This letter between the municipality and the MPP working together is really important,” Gates says, promising that he will continue to work with the town, the province and Niagara Health until there is a nurse practitioner in place in NOTL.