LHIN catches the flak -- but the Ontario government pulls the strings. I am almost feeling sorry the the LHINs.

Boy, I almost feel sorry for the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). They are taking a terrible pasting following the Ombudsman's report that exposes their community 'consultations' as a complete scam. Apparently, one LHIN leader thought conferring with pals at his private golf course (open to anyone who can afford $8000 in green fees) was an acceptable form of consultation.

While anyone who has been involved in health care knows the the LHINs do not really consult their communities, I feel pretty confident that the Tories and the right-wingers (who are kicking the LHINs now that they are down) actually prefer "a process that makes no pretence of consultation than a dishonest sham. Better the honest dictatorship than the faux democracy." (As, in fact, Christie Blatchford suggested yesterday in the Mop and Pail.)

Despite the Ombudsman report, Deb Matthews and the Liberal government refuse to review the closures of hospital emergency rooms and services occasioned after the LHIN 'consultations'.

What a surprise.

As many said right from the get go, the LHINs are merely flak catchers for the provincial government. And in that, they are succeeding.

But let's hope people see through the LHINs to their government string pullers. And that some of the LHIN board members might begin to see that they are being used.

dallan@cupe.ca

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