Our communities' concerns are not just with the so-called "hospital improvement plan." They are also with -- very much so -- the unwieldy NHS structure and its proven inability to adequately serve our region.

I understand that Ottawa hospitals underwent a restructuring and were consolidated under the direction of a single system. Our region's hospitals, too, were consolidated, over objections, into a single system.

I understand that services were consolidated at three Ottawa hospital sites. A similar consolidation of services -- in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland, to the detriment of our smaller neighbours -- has already taken place here as well.

Dr. Kitts and his team have apparently experienced the benefits of a successful merger and consolidation of services. Now they are faced with a region where the merger has not been successful. Will they be closing their eyes to this fact?

A consolidation of services may lead to better quality of care within a single large municipal area. However, ours is not a single large municipal area.

This is a mix of small urban and rural areas without an inter-municipal transit system and prone to unusual lake effects on our weather. The people who actually live in this region know that the contiguity of our communities has not (even after almost four decades of regional government) translated into strong interconnections between us.

We have witnessed the abysmal failure of the NHS to adequately serve our needs. We have justifiable concerns with both the quality and cost of care under the proposed plan. Just as the amalgamation of our hospitals into the NHS is a proven failure, the proposed consolidation of services is likewise unrealistic and unworkable.

We are not asking for a reopening of old wounds. We are asking for an examination of a failed experiment: The NHS.

It is the system itself which desperately needs review. Any less effort is doomed, like the NHS itself, to inadequacy and failure.

Councillor Janice Wing

Niagara Falls