Emergency Services
in Fort Erie and Port Colborne
¤ For the detailed Info Sheet in print format, click HERE.
The Hospital Improvement Plan released in July 2008 by the Niagara Health System outlines a case for change to find a more effective way to provide future care than what is now provided through existing Emergency Departments at Douglas Memorial Hospital Site in Fort Erie and Port Colborne General Site.
Many residents of Fort Erie and Port Colborne have no alternative but to use their local hospital Emergency Department for primary or non-emergent care. The reasons for this are as follows:
- Prescription refills or a doctor’s note for work are needed.
- Follow-up outpatient programs are minimal or non-existent.
- There is an ongoing shortage of family physicians, primary care centres and community walk-in clinics.
This means that patients must return to the Emergency Department time and time again, even though they’re not experiencing an emergency.
For many years and continuing through today, the most seriously-ill emergency patients presenting at small hospitals are transferred to the larger hospitals for the diagnostic, specialist and critical care they need. Often, patients go directly by ambulance from home or accident scene to a larger centre, frequently the case with serious traffic accidents. In the case of a suspected stroke, ambulance paramedics rush patients to Greater Niagara General Site, where a specialty stroke team is on call.
The night shift has the fewest visits to Emergency Departments in both communities.
- From 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., Fort Erie and Port Colborne Emergency Departments treat on average, less than one patient per hour.
- The majority of the patients seen at night are less-urgent patients who could safely wait until morning.
- True emergency cases average less than one patient per 10-hour shift each night. Most often, these extremely-ill patients are transferred to larger hospitals in and beyond Niagara.
Despite this, we must fully staff our departments with doctors and nurses trained in Emergency Medicine. We know that continuing to staff smaller departments 24 hours a day will become more difficult due to our aging workforce and significant physician and nurse shortages.
Prompt/Urgent Care Centres
To provide more appropriate care, we are proposing that the Emergency Departments at Douglas Memorial Hospital Site and Port Colborne General Site transition to Prompt/Urgent Care Centres, open seven days a week.
- Prompt/Urgent Care Centres would treat over 95% of the patients being seen in the Emergency Department.
- St. Catharines’ Prompt Care Centre currently has about 36,000 visits per year and a similar model could be established for Fort Erie and Port Colborne.
- There would be full physician coverage with onsite diagnostic, laboratory and pharmacy services available.
Niagara is fortunate to have comprehensive ambulance services available through Niagara Emergency Medical Services, which strives to have at least one advanced-care paramedic on each ambulance. This high level of pre-hospital care is essential to ensure rapid transport to fully-equipped Emergency Departments with the back up of the large hospitals’ MRI, CT, range of specialists and full operating rooms. Having the larger Emergency Department as the first destination for the sickest patients avoids delay in diagnosis and treatment.
This is a snapshot of what the future could be. We know there needs to be much more discussion with health-care partners and the communities we serve.
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