Hospital type Public Beds Over 800 | Emergency department Site Dependent Founded 2005 | |
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Location Regional Municipality of Niagara, Ontario, Canada Care system Public Medicare (Canada) (OHIP) CEO Kevin Smith (13 Jan 2014–) Headquarters Regional Municipality of Niagara, Canada Profiles | ||
The Niagara Health System (NHS) is Ontario's largest multi-site hospital amalgamation, comprising the following six sites serving 434,000 residents across the 12 municipalities making up the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Canada.
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The NHS has almost 900 Acute Care, Complex Continuing Care, Mental Health, Long Term Care and Addiction Treatment beds. A wide range of inpatient and outpatient clinics/services are provided at seven sites. The NHS has 4,154 employees, 599 physicians and 1,100 volunteers, with an annual operating budget of approximately $400 million.
Niagara health system surgical program
Controversies
Since its inception, the NHS has been involved in several noteworthy controversies.
NHS has been under an Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) censure since February 2003. According to an Ontario Nurses Association press release in June 2007, censuring is ONA's nationwide public reproach of a health agency due to the negative impact on staff and patient care, of poor labour relations and administrative practices.
In October 2008, the Niagara Health System Medical Staff Association passed a non-confidence vote in the NHS leadership by a vote of 136 to 76.
On May 17, 2010, the Ontario Health Coalition after conducting public hearings in March 2010 issued a report calling on the provincial government to send an investigator to the Niagara Health System, stating the following reasons:
Witnesses in Niagara described the poorest access to hospital beds and emergency department care of all the regions we visited. Cuts have been and are being implemented without any protections for resident access to care and without funding agreements, functional protocols and enablers in place. This panel observes that hospital care in Niagara is chaotic, perilously short-staffed and under-resourced. The hospital system has lost public confidence.