Skip to main content

Hospital clinic cuts service: a sign of things to come?

The Leamington and District Memorial Hospital ended 7 day a week service at its Pelee Island clinic on July 1.  Also gone is its 24 hour a day on-call service.


The mayor of Pelee Island told  the Windsor Star it's "only a matter of time" before someone dies because of recent cuts to urgent health care in the community.  People on Pelee Island, whether they are residents or visitors, have the right to the same health care services as everyone else in Ontario." 

As of July 1, the Pelee Island clinic - now a nursing station - operates only eight hours per day, five days a week, providing primary care, urgent care and home care. It's closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those hours will remain in effect as part of a 60-day trial period.  To make matters worse, the clinic may be open only one day a week in the off-season, from December until April. 

The decision to reduce health care services on the island was made in May  and based on the community's small population, Masse told the Star.  "But the people who made those decisions don't live here and they're making decisions based on things they have no clue about," he said.

There have been 11 emergencies on Pelee Island since July 1.

As elsewhere, hospital cuts have driven up the need for (municipally run) Emergency Medical Services.  EMS Chief Randy Mellow said that to meet the new demands,  the municipal EMS budget for the island would have to almost double from $150,000 in 2011 to $290,000.


A meeting between the Pelee Island mayor, county council, and the Ontario Health Minister is scheduled for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August. County Council is also seeking a more immediate meeting with the Minister.

A sign o' things to come?
While the hospital funding squeeze forced significant cuts in 2010, fewer high profile cuts have occurred this year -- presumably connected to the upcoming provincial election.  

Given the health funding plans of the biggest parties, I expect much more of this after the election.  

 (Unless we organize.)


Leftwords will now go quiet for a summer break for a couple of weeks.  Have a great summer! (And see you at the OHC rally for health care September 13th at Queen's Park!)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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