A goofy idea goes down. The Liberals (and the LHIN) retreat.

As reported here a week and a half ago, the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN -- the guys charged with funding and restructuring Ontario health care) was planning to bring in Disney speakers for an hour or two at an upcoming LHIN conference.

Well (following a lot of public criticism), it now appears that even the LHIN finds this idea too goofy (or, perhaps, just a little mickey mouse).  So they've pulled the Disney speakers.

But the Erie St. Clair LHIN CEO, Gary Switzer, is not backing down graciously. Here's his response to Tory leader,Tim Hudak, who had criticised the plan: “Let’s be very clear — this guy is making this crap up and it’s false. I don’t think the public is stupid enough to believe him.”

The Windsor Star notes that Switzer countered Hudak, claiming the LHIN was not going to spend $10,900 for Disney speakers to lead the 90 minute chat, but rather only $9,500.

(At this point I might note that I'd be more than willing to talk all day for $9,500 dollars -- and I have actually worked, a little bit, on Ontario health care.)

Interestingly, the Toronto Star reports that the government called the LHIN last week telling them to scrap the idea, with a follow-up call on Tuesday.  Switzer, the LHIN CEO, says a “team decision” was made to cancel the Disney contract late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

That, I think, is a pretty good indication of the true independence of the LHINs from the Liberal government.

By the way, the two speakers still on the LHIN conference agenda are Michael Decter, a former Deputy Minister of Health and LTC and Saad Rafi, the current Deputy Minister of Health and LTC. Decter is a dedicated advocate of the failed experiment with competitive bidding in home care in Ontario, while Rafi has long advocated privatized P3 hospitals.

Finally, the Erie St. Clair LHIN has just contracted out an overall review of the five hospitals in the LHIN to the private consulting firm Deloitte. (Who will take a cool $1.5 million from the LHIN for their trouble. Switzer says the review is beyond the resources of the LHIN itself.  Despte the 'e-health' fiasco, the fascination with contracting out continues, apparently.) The Deloitte review is supposed to be completed in December.

I'm expecting more goofy ideas.   With at least a few from Cruella Da Ville.

dallan@cupe.ca

Comments

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data. This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization. Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion. That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year. The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million. In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2.

Paramedic Services in Canada: Structure, Privatization, Unionization and other issues

Governance and Funding : While police and fire services are usually municipal services, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are typically controlled by provincial governments. In Ontario, regional municipal governments have responsibility for delivering and funding EMS. But even in Ontario the province plays a key role, strictly regulating EMS, providing funding for 50% of the approved land ambulance costs, and paying 100% of the approved costs for air ambulance, dispatch, base hospitals, First Nation EMS, and for territories without municipal government. Delivery : Like police and fire services, EMS is predominantly a publicly provided service in Canada. But businesses have now made some significant in-roads into EMS, primarily Medavie, a private corporation based in the Maritimes that describes itself as not-for-profit. Medavie goes back over 70 years, with its roots in health insurance. It still operates Medavie Blue Cross with 1,900 employees. It now a

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog