The chief executives of the towns of Newfane, Wilson, Cambria, Somerset, Lockport, and the City of Lockport, have penned a letter to the Easter Niagara Health Care Board of directors with a list of "action items" they have adopted as a group in dealing with the ongoing situation at ENH-Newfane.

The letter requests, among other things, that the group have a meeting with the board of directors next week.

The letter follows in its entirety, unedited, as posted on the Town of Newfane blog:

ENHS Board of Directors:

We are sincerely appreciative of your willingness to meet with us on March 25 and allow us to share our perspectives as local elected officials within the very region which is served by the ENHS Newfane facility. We represent constituent and local business interests each and every day in order to preserve and grow the local community in which we serve. The situation involving Eastern Niagara Hospital uniquely requires us to simultaneously represent and advocate for an extremely vital constituent and local business interest. As we have conveyed to you previously, we stand ready to work with you in order meet those mutually important interests.

After our initial meeting, we have continued to receive expressed constituent concerns and we have endeavored to evaluate further provided information/data concerning rural and community based hospital system stressors, both nationally and state-wide. We feel that we have a good handle on what our constituent’s desire and we also believe that we have a better understanding of the issues from the ENHS perspective at this point.

With consideration to both concerned interests, our committee respectfully submits the following action items that we have adopted:

1. The immediate retention of an independent consultant for the purpose of providing verification to the committee and ENHS board regarding industry trends and relational ENHS data and advisement concerning a sustainability plan for continued operations at the ENHS Newfane facility.

2. A detailed plan for the continued operation of the Newfane site to include at minimum:

• 24/7 Emergency Medical Service capacity to include appropriate physician staffed department with private triage areas, trauma rooms and operating suites.
• Radiology Services
• Cardiac Services
• Laboratory Services
• Dialysis Services
• Physical Therapy and Occupational Medicinal Services
• The establishment of a community action/advisory committee. We envision that this could include a five person designation assigned by the ENHS Board of Directors, a single representative from all local governments included in our present committee (T- Newfane/ T-Somerset/T-Wilson/ T- Cambria/ T- Lockport/City Lockport) as well as the chairman of the Niagara County Legislature and the Niagara County Director of Public Health. The purpose of this action/advisory committee is only to promote continued dialogue and communication between ENHS and community stakeholders in order to promote the interests that ENHS serves within our community, It will develop its own internal working policy but the committee will have no binding authority to make any decision concerning ENHS.

3. We would further respectfully request that upon consideration of the aforementioned action items, a second meeting be convened between the entire ENHS Board of Directors and our committee. We have availability during the week of April 20 – 26.

Town of Somerset Supervisor Daniel Engert is designated as the coordinating representative of our committee and correspondence concerning this matter can be routed to his attention.

We look forward to working together in order to maintain critical services within our community.

Respectfully,

Timothy Horanburg – Town of Newfane
Joseph Jastrzemski – Town of Wilson
Marc Smith – Town of Lockport
Daniel Engert – Town of Somerset
Wright Ellis – Town of Cambria
Anne McCaffrey – City of Lockport