Welcome to Lincoln Community Midwives

SAVE WLMH

The fight is not over, we need to remain vigilant! Stay tuned…

Visit the official Save West Lincoln Memorial Hospital website to learn more about the current situation, what we are asking for, and what you can do to help!

The Save WLMH Facebook page is another great place to find information and share your personal #myWLMH story.

Looking to donate to the cause? Visit the Save WLMH GoFundMe page.

**We would like to introduce you to the Day family! Andrea Day, a past client of LCM, is inviting everyone to join in her efforts to save WLMH by launching a letter writing campaign. Read more here!

We understand that the HHS Board has empowered their Executive team of HHS Management team to make the final decision regarding the issues about Obstetrical and Surgical Services at WLMH.

We are asking people to EMAIL the executive team to voice their concerns; this can be done in addition to letter writing (but we know you’re all busy people!!).

Please forward your email to president@hhsc.ca and cc Julie Kamula (borgris@hhsc.ca), MPP Sam Oosterhoff (sam.oosterhoff@pc.ola.org), Minister of Health Christine Elliott (christine.elliott@pc.ola.org) and Premier Doug Ford (doug.ford@pc.ola.org).

Tips for writing an email:

In the News:

The fight to save WLMH is not new. We have rallied for the hospital in the past and we are committed to continue to do so.
This is an old article about 2012 History of WLMH build being delayed/deferred:

Article from Niagara News week of October 19, 2018:

Article by Shelby Knox on October 24, 2018:

History

Email circulated October 22/18:
 
Dear Clients,
 
Today we were called to an emergency meeting at West Lincoln Memorial Hospital (WLMH) to meet with representatives of the Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) leadership & administration. We were provided with an external consultant’s report that shows that our operating room does not meet current standards for accreditation. The worry is, although patients have not been negatively affected to date, we are required to act before there is a problem. This report indicates that our operating room requires significant renovations ($8.6 million dollars) to meet standards. This renovation would impact the delivery of services. In short, during a major renovation like this would be difficult to keep an operating room running. The estimated time to complete the renovations are lengthy (27 months). The bigger issue is the aging infrastructure – similar to renovating an older home you need to stop and ask yourself: does it make sense to renovate or is it just better to rebuild?
 
In order to run an obstetrical department, we need to have a functioning operating room that can perform surgeries, like emergency c-sections. As medical and hospital staff, we were told that if the government does not provide funding to address the infrastructure issues immediately, the operating room and obstetrical department could be closed as early as January 2019.
 
We, like you, have more questions than answers at this point. It is imperative that we let our MPP, Sam Oosterhoff know of our concerns. We also need to contact our Health Minister and Premier. Please see contact information for each of these representatives below.
 
The Leadership at HHS is proposing (strongly suggesting) to “temporarily” close the OR until the renovations can be accomplished, provided that the provincial funding IS approved. Closing the OR and OBS departments as “temporary” actions can have long term effects and we predict could be disastrous for the entire hospital and our community as a whole. The operating room and our obstetrical department are the heart of our hospital. Losing these services will likely negatively impact other services and units offered within the hospital; like being able to staff an ER department consistently and competently.
 
We remain hopeful, that through intense public pressure, the province will commit with immediate solutions that allows obstetrics to stay at WLMH.
We understand this email could cause anxiety as many of you are planning to birth your babies in this community. It is hard to be faced with such uncertainty. We keep reminding ourselves that at this very moment the only thing we can do is to TAKE ACTIONLet your voices be heard. Call your MPP.Email the Minister of Health and our Premier. Take action this week.
 
WLMH’s future depends on it.
 
Thanks in advance for your support.
Sincerely,
Lincoln Community Midwives