Yet still, senior politicians and Niagara Health System senior management perpetuate the myth and impose their bad 'entitlement' attitude on a public they are supposed to serve.

Does anyone out there really believe that the likes of CEO Sevenpifer, Chair Partington or Dr.Shragge would even accept, far less have to wait for 6 hours or more at the Welland Emergency Unit for attention themselves????

Yet these are the public servants who claim they are 'entitled' to make decisions on your behalf. The same ones who have been responsible for the ongoing financial incompetence that puts the Niagara Health System further and further into debt, requiring yet more of your tax dollars every year.

They are the same ones who have presided over a health system that has systematically reduced the actual number of hands-on medical staff, both doctors and nurses, the only ones who are actually vital to patient care in any health service.

With the Baby Boomer crisis looming larger and larger it will be amazing if there are enough experienced medical staff available to fill the requirements of this new hospital by the time it has been built.

The proposed new cancer centre and hospital may well be a tremendous addition to the Niagara Health Service, particularly to those living in close proximity to St. Catharines.

But for those living further away, don't have a heart attack or suffer any life-threatening emergency. And don't hold your breath any time soon that you will suddenly see any miraculous reductions in wait times for cancer diagnosis or treatment. No evidence exists in the Niagara Region to support such optimism.

Part of the above plans ride on the back of the move to close our own local hospitals, already condemned are Port Colborne and Fort Erie. If you survive a 50-minute drive to an even busier Welland Emergency Room you will likely be waiting for far more than the present 6 hours for attention!

EMS personnel do an incredible job under more and more impossible circumstances. No one can expect them to perform miracles.

So, close our local hospitals, build your St.Catharines Monument to your own collective incompetence if you must, but please, please, can we have some honesty? Those of you driving these grandiose plans, show us, the taxpaying public, just one single tiny iota of proof that you have some idea that what you are forcing on the Niagara taxpayers will produce positive results? To date your track record is abysmal.

Andrew Watts,

Port Colborne