Medicine in Niagara Falls
The history of medicine in Niagara Falls often has intersections with our border with the United States. Crossing the border for medical care on either side was commonplace, and doctors practicing cross-border was also a common phenomenon. This was fairly simple at the time – one had to be licensed in both Canada and the United States, but travel between countries was uncomplicated and some doctors would even have a practice on either side, and alternate which days they were in which office.
As crossing became more of a nuisance and the population of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls expanded, cross-border care began to reduce. One of the results of this was the opening of the Niagara Falls General Hospital on Jepson St. in 1907, which did not go quite as smoothly as one might think.
A new hospital in the area meant that all of the local doctors were required to “attend” – meaning that they had to visit inpatients every day, as well as rotate visiting new patients who had no physician. To organize and facilitate this, the Niagara Falls Medical Association was formed. They first met on January 14, 1907, and their meetings included everything from guest lectures to deciding on what their standardized fees for medical procedures would be.
This also led to conflict. Some conflicts were small and easily resolved – for example complaints about the head of Nursing at the hospital, petitions opposing chiropractic work, or getting rid of radiators in operating rooms that were causing excess heat and contamination. Some conflicts, though, were much bigger.
One such conflict was over the hospital allowing ‘county doctors’ to attend patients at the hospital – that is, doctors who practiced outside the city of Niagara Falls and weren’t involved in the Association. The city doctors, who put much money and effort into the building of the hospital and had all agreed on standardization and a shift rotation, disagreed with this, and in late 1908 a great number of the Association’s doctors threatened to resign when their resolutions were ignored by the hospital board. It was finally resolved when it was recommended that any new doctors needed a 6-month probation.
Along with fighting within the ranks, there was also conflict between the Canadian doctors in the Association and various American doctors who practiced here. While in the 19th century this practice was broadly accepted, this changed around the time the hospital came into operation. Doctors in Niagara Falls, Ontario began noticing that many American doctors with practices here were doing so without the proper licensing for practicing medicine in Canada.
Medicine in Niagara has always been made more interesting by our proximity to the border, even though today – with our two entirely different medical systems – it seems impossible. But the intertwining of the American and Canadian medical system was fundamental to the shaping of Niagara’s medical community.