This is an opinion column was written by Lynn Guerriero, President and CEO of Niagara Health. It was originally published in the St. Catharines Standard, Welland Tribune and Niagara Falls Review.
I want to acknowledge the heartfelt advocacy expressed in recent opinion pieces and news articles about the Urgent Care Centres in Fort Erie and Port Colborne. We all want the same thing — for all Niagara residents to have access to timely, high-quality care. But we owe it to the community to talk honestly about what’s really needed.
We recognize that change can feel like loss — especially in communities that have seen the evolution of health services over decades. But clinging to outdated models won’t improve care. In fact, it prevents us from moving toward something better: a stronger, more connected system that actually meets people where they are.
Here are the facts:
The Urgent Care Centres in Fort Erie and Port Colborne are not, and have not been, Emergency Departments for more than a decade.
They are not equipped or staffed to handle trauma or life-threatening emergencies. They are underused, outdated facilities that depend on staff and physicians already stretched thin across Niagara.
A shortage of emergency physicians is pushing Niagara’s hospitals and urgent care centres to the brink, with dozens more vacancies across hospital-based roles — from anesthetists to internists — reinforcing the urgent need for a more coordinated, sustainable system.
The biggest gaps in Fort Erie and Port Colborne are not urgent care gaps — they are primary care gaps. More than 11,000 people in Fort Erie and nearly 10,000 in Port Colborne don’t have access to a family doctor or primary care provider.
This is where the focus must be.
Access to primary care is the most effective way to keep people healthier, out of hospitals, and better supported over the long term. That’s not just our position — it’s the direction of healthcare leaders across the province.
Dr. Jane Philpott, former federal Minister of Health, is leading Ontario’s new Primary Care Action Team with a mandate to connect every Ontarian to primary care within five years. She compares it to the public education system — every child is guaranteed a school in their community, and we should expect the same for healthcare.
Dr. Philpott’s action plan builds on a proven model that reduces inappropriate Emergency Department use, supports chronic disease management, improves mental health access and ensures people get care before their needs become emergencies.
That’s where our energy needs to be — and it’s where Niagara Health is focused.
We are working closely with the Niagara Ontario Health Team - Équipe Sante Ontario Niagara, local family physicians and the Region to support expanded access to family doctors, team-based primary care, after-hours services and diagnostics. We’ve supported proposals for expanded local diagnostic imaging services and offered to work with municipal leaders and local physician leaders to transfer the UCCs and imaging services ahead of the new South Niagara Hospital opening in 2028.
Recruiting doctors and healthcare professionals is not something the hospital can do alone. It takes a region. To attract high-calibre staff, communities must be places people want to live, raise families and build careers. A sustainable system also means concentrating limited resources where they can do the most good — not spreading them so thin that no one gets what they need.
Keeping the UCCs open at all costs puts emergency services across of the entire Niagara Region at risk. That’s a risk we cannot take — and it’s not responsible to suggest otherwise.
We remain committed to working with local leaders, residents and health system partners. We’re grounded in facts, focused on care and driven by what matters most: the health and well-being of the people we serve.
We believe in a strong healthcare future for South Niagara — one that includes modern hospitals, robust primary care, accessible diagnostics, home care, mental health supports and more. But that future will look different than today.
The new South Niagara Hospital will be a state-of-the-art facility designed to serve a growing, aging population. Its success — and the sustainability of healthcare in this region — depends on municipalities, providers and hospitals working in partnership, not pulling in different directions.
