Freedom of information, expense info, and consultant reports coming to Ontario hospitals

Another change proposed in the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act (Bil 122) is to make hospitals subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) as of January 1, 2012.

The change is some time off: the government, with some reason, claims that it will take the hospitals time to prepare for freedom of information (FOI) requests. But once in place, records from the previous five years will be subject to FOI requests, the government assures us. LHINs have been subject to FOI requests since 2005 (the year they were established). Personal health information is excluded from FOI requests.

The Act also sets some requirements for the public posting of expense claim information by designated broader public sector organizations. The proposed legislation requires Local Health Integration Networks and hospitals to post information about expense claims onto their public web sites -- other broader public sector organizations may be required by regulation to do likewise at a later date. The Ministry of Health and LTC will issue directives setting out what must be reported (s. 8.2). Reportedly, the reports will apply to the expenses of senior executives. Regulations may later expand the requirement to report expense claim information to other broader public sector organizations (s.9.2)

As well, LHINs and hospitals will be required to report annually on their use of consultants. What, exactly, must be reported will be announced later, as the Ministry of Health and LTC is given the power to issue directives on this (s. 5.2 & 6.2). Again, other broader public sector organizations may be made subject to this requirement through regulation (s.7.1)

Consultants are defined (s. 1.1) as people other than employees who provide expert or strategic advice through a contract. So no -- hospitals will not be required to report on contracting-out for other services -- services (like housekeeping or food) which eat up a lot more of the budget than when services are contracted out to consultants.

Too bad.

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